There is an “acute shortage” of care workers against a background of rising demand for care, new analysis has found.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health published a report entitled “Ireland’s Future Health and Social Care Workforce”, which seeks to ensure sufficient future supply of staff in these sectors.
The department’s analysis report said there was an increase in the number of care workers and home carers of 1.8 per cent between 2017 and 2022, with 67,300 staff employed at the end of 2022. More than a quarter – 26 per cent – were aged 55 years or older.
“Replacement demand alone will be a challenge even before looking at the increased demand for these services with our ageing demographics,” the report noted.
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There are a range of jobs within this sector, including healthcare assistants, healthcare support assistants and home support workers, who work across multiple areas in acute hospital and community care.
“Shortages in the care workforce can result in older people remaining in hospital awaiting home care packages so they should be viewed as a critical part of a patient’s pathway through our health system and particular attention is needed to ensure the provision of care corresponds to the current and future population need.”
It added: “It is important to consider the current public/private configuration and how that may change based on policies.”
The report also highlights Ireland’s reliance on foreign-educated workforce, about which the World Health Organisation has raised concerns.
According to the most recent census, from 2022, about 30 per cent of all workers in Ireland are foreign-born. However, within the health and social care sector this is much higher, with 52 per cent of nurses and midwives, 43 per cent of doctors and 41.3 per cent of long-term care workers being foreign-born or educated.
“In the absence of significant increases to third-level student intake, large-scale recruitment of foreign educated doctors, nurses and midwives would be required into the future. It is reasonable to presume that all health systems will face a sustained and ongoing shortage of qualified health workers,” the report said.
“As the population ages, our high reliance on migrants to work in care roles leaves us especially vulnerable. Ireland is likely to face challenges and increased fragility in our supply pipeline due to a possible increase in competitiveness in the international labour market.”
The paper showed “an urgent need” to build future supply of healthcare workers, citing ageing population, increased chronic disease and reliance on internationally trained staff as drivers behind these shortfalls.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the State’s health and social care workforce is the country’s “strongest asset” and significant investment has been made.
“However, our modelling projections are showing that if we continue on our current trajectory we will not have a sufficient number of health and social care workers in the future,” she said.
“Developing a dynamic, agile workforce and increasing the domestic supply of health and social care professionals will be essential to ensuring an economically sustainable workforce that can meet the health needs of our growing and ageing population.”
James Lawless, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, said: “Since 2022, more than 1,300 additional training places have been delivered across priority health and social care disciplines, with a further 600 places on track for 2026.”
