Thousands of additional health and social care workers needed to deal with growing population 

The population of Ireland is growing, and the number of people aged 85 and above is expected to double by 2025, necessitating more health staff. 

Thousands of additional health and social care workers are going to be needed to deal with our growing and ageing population.

New research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) suggests that, by 2025, medical staff of between 2,575 and 3,236 whole-time equivalent, will be required nationally, representing an increase of between 1.7% and 2.1% on average per year.

Most of those new staff will be needed in the east of the country, based on projected population growth, while the number of people aged 85 and above is expected to double nationally by 2025.

Staff needed in all sectors 

• As for nursing and midwifery, staff of between 5,726 and 8,868 whole-time equivalent will be required nationally, representing an increase of between 1.4% and 2.1% on average per annum.

• Healthcare assistants and health and social care assistants of between 1,802 and 3,277 whole-time equivalent, representing an increase of between 1.7% and 2.9% on average per year will be needed. 

Across the various scenarios presented in the research, the highest projected regional increase per annum was 5.2%, recorded in the south of the country.

• Occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, in particular, will be needed to deal with the growing and ageing population of the country.

The population is projected to be 5.4m by 2035 under the ESRI’s population growth scenario, an increase of close to 500,000 over a 16 year period.

The ESRI said: “A key finding from this report is that workforce requirements for all staff categories examined are projected to increase substantially by 2035. 

Large projected increases in older age groups are identified as the dominant driver of underlying service demand and therefore workforce requirements.

“In this regard, particularly large relative increases in workforce requirements have been identified for health and social care professions [most notably occupational therapists and speech and language therapists] that are particularly required by older people in hospital.

“Additional workforce will likely be required to contribute to waiting-list management, but we estimate much of this to be temporary in nature and required to address non-recurring backlogs for care that have arisen in recent years. 

"Greater access to community care has the potential to offset some projected increased pressures on hospital workforce.”

Conor Keegan, ESRI senior research officer and lead author, said: “Findings show that expansion of public acute hospital workforce will be required across all regions and all staff categories examined in this report. 

In the context of ongoing Sláintecare implementation, policymakers will need to consider how workforce supply can be increased to meet these demand pressures. 

Anne Marie Hoey, the HSE's national director of human resources, said the findings, including the regional indications, would help inform resource planning and influence training and education "to ensure the availability of graduates to fulfil the workforce requirements within the domestic market".