Richard Boyd Barrett: Make Health Recruitment the Economic Stimulus
Richard Boyd Barrett argued that recruiting and properly paying health workers must be central to the July economic stimulus, because public health service capacity is a precondition for reopening the economy. He said recruitment would both protect against further lockdowns and act as a direct economic stimulus, and warned that COVID-related health costs will require billions in additional funding.
Main argument
Richard Boyd Barrett told the Dáil that increasing health-service capacity and recruiting staff are not in competition with economic stimulus measures; they are mutually reinforcing. He insisted that if the public health service is overrun, any economic stimulus will be negated by the need to reimpose lockdowns.
Economic rationale
He argued that paying health workers properly and recruiting more staff will itself stimulate local economies, noting hospitals underpin local employment and commerce. He cited St. Michael's Hospital in Dunleary as an example of a health facility that holds a local economy together.
Funding and capacity
Boyd Barrett warned that the sums required for health to respond to COVID-19 are well beyond small supplements and will be measured in billions, covering PPE, hospital supports and staff costs. He said substantial increases in health funding will be necessary to deal with the ongoing impacts of the virus.
Workforce retention and conditions
He stressed the need not only to recruit health workers but to improve conditions and human resource performance so staff remain in the health service. He highlighted retention as particularly important in disability services and other care areas.
Engagement with ministers
Richard Boyd Barrett acknowledged responses from other deputies and said he would engage with the minister on recruitment and disability services. He repeated that recruitment, pay, and staffing improvements must feature in the July stimulus to allow the economy to function alongside COVID-19.
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Yeah, sure, just quickly as a supplementary to our earlier point, yep, but T-Shirt, I think, you see, we shouldn't set the need to recruit health workers in order to increase the capacity of health service against the need to stimulate other parts of the economy. Actually, recruiting health workers should be part of the stimulus because, A, if our health service is overrun, forget everything else. The stimulus will mean nothing if we have to lock down our economy again. So a precondition for the reopening of the economy is to get the public health service up to capacity levels that will allow us to continue to function economically. The two go hand in hand. But also, paying health workers properly and recruiting more health care workers will in itself be a stimulus to the economy and to every part of the country which has health service facilities or hospitals. I mean, in Dunleary, St. Michael's Hospital holds the local economy together. I'm sure that's true in Tala and in many other parts of the country where there are hospitals. So the two aren't set against one another. They are intimately connected. And I think it's very important in the July stimulus that the government recognises that from both an economic point of view and from the imperative of getting our health service up to the capacity levels we need to be able to function alongside COVID-19. We're talking in 20 million in relation to health, you know, in response to Deputy McDonnell and Deputy Boye Barrett. I mean, we're talking in billions now in terms of what health requires, particularly in terms of dealing with COVID. And the, you know, the estimates for the next 12 months will be quite staggering relative to what was spent prior to the to the emergence of the virus and issues to do with PPE and a variety of other measures to support hospitals and support staff. And of course, you're correct, Deputy Boye Barrett. I mean, I didn't mean to juxtapose the two. Of course, recruitment to health is very important. We need to continue to recruit to health, but not only recruit, but make conditions better and enhance our human resource service and human resource performance in relation to the health service in general. So that not only do we recruit people, but that we keep them within the health service and that's something I would be particularly strong in relation to that in terms of disability services and the call. I will obviously again engage with Minister Donnelly on that. But again, I think, you know, there will be, as I say, very substantial increases in health funding. And we saw the supplementary already, but there will be more needed to deal with a lot of the issues that COVID is bringing on board.
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