HSE: We need extra 155 staff for abortion services
AN EXTRA 155 healthcare workers will be needed as the health system begins to provide abortions next year, according to the latest HSE strategy.
The plan for free abortion creates an additional strain on the health service, it says. The same plan says that up to 100 beds at residential homes for the elderly will be closed – and critical services will be under financial strain.
This is the first time the Government has come up with a figure for how many healthcare staff will be needed to provide abortions in the HSE system. It was reluctant to do so during the abortion referendum campaign.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said a number of jobs would be created when abortion is introduced from Tuesday, January 1.
‘As set out in the National Service Plan 2019, 155 WTEs (Whole Time Equivalent posts) in the areas of sonography, midwifery and Consultant Obstetrician/ Gynaecology posts will be created to support and enable the implementation of a safe, highquality
termination of pregnancy service in the acute hospital system’, she said.
‘From January 1, 2019, people can access an abortion in Ireland under specific circumstances. Abortion services will begin to be provided by the HSE, through GPs or family planning services in all counties, and in maternity units and hospitals across the country. Abortion care will be free of charge to people who need it.’
Whole Time Equivalents are used to calculate how many fulltime jobs any project requires. However, many of those working on it may be part-time and their hours are added together to reach the equivalent of 155 full-time
The number of new jobs needed to perform abortions was not explicitly mentioned when the HSE 2019 plan was launched.
At the plan’s launch, the HSE’s deputy director of strategy Dean Sullivan said the service remains
under financial pressure in a number of areas. He warned: ‘While we will endeavour to ensure we provide value for the monies we spend, we are very cognisant that meeting both current and future challenges is not
sustainable.’
The report warned of a cut in the number of beds in residential homes. ‘We will also need to reconfigure the overall public bed stock to a more sustainable level, giving rise to a reduction in bed numbers of 80-100 beds,’ it read.
The HSE has allocated €12million to abortion funding from January 1, as part of the National Service Plan 2019. According to the report, installing the service in acute hospital settings is expected to cost €7million next year, rising to €12million in 2020 and require an additional 155 personal.
Community healthcare facilities such as GP surgeries will require €4.5million in 2019 rising to €9miljobs.
lion in 2020 but will not require additional staff. The cost of abortion services, in terms of population health and wellbeing, promotional campaigns, and introducing policy will be €0.5million next year and €2million in 2020.
The report outlines the guidelines for creating the service which will be ‘primarily community-led service’ by GPs in surgeries and women’s health centres. According to the authors, from next month, they will ensure abortion can be accessed free of charge within community and acute hospital settings, with support staff educating staff at such centres on termination clinical guidelines.
Despite concerns over whether the service will be introduced on time, the authors said planning was ‘well advanced’ with clinical guidelines and the model of care ‘in the process of being finalised’.
Many GPs have expressed concern over the practicalities of implementing the service.
The plan includes the opening of 202 new beds at health facilities and the hiring of 2,000 workers across the service. The overall plan is based on the largest budget ever, €16.05billion, an increase of 5.6 %, or €848million, on this year.
Of that sum €55million is for expanding mental health services and €70.3million will contribute to changes in primary care schemes.
The planning is ‘well-advanced’