Staff shortages force cut in physiotherapy sessions for National Rehabilitation Hospital patients

A spokesperson for the NRH said the hospital was facing a staffing 'challenge', but that every effort was being made to reduce the impact on patient care. Picture: Billy Higgins

The National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) has been forced to reduce the number of physiotherapy sessions it can offer patients due to staffing shortages.

There are currently five vacant posts for physiotherapists and two for social workers at the hospital.

The vacancies at the hospital come amid reports of staffing problems across the health service, with patient services affected as a result.

In July, the HSE admitted that about 35,000 hours worth of home help care will not be delivered every week this year because of staff shortages, amounting to more than 1.8m hours over the course of 2022.

A spokesperson for the NRH said the hospital was facing a staffing “challenge”, but that every effort was being made to reduce the impact on patient care.

 “Currently there are challenges in national and international healthcare systems in recruiting and retaining nursing and therapy [health and social care professionals] staff.

“This is affecting recruitment in the NRH as well as many other hospitals in the country," the spokesperson said. 

"New developments in the areas of community services has meant there are new opportunities arising for people to move closer to home.

The increased cost of living in Dublin has meant that many are making life decisions to move elsewhere.”

They added: “When numbers are particularly low on teams due to vacancies, staff absence due to sick leave — mainly Covid leave — some patient treatment sessions may be impacted.

“When this situation occurs, interdisciplinary teams aim to reconfigure scheduling of individual and group sessions to cover a staffing shortage in a particular discipline.

“When staffing shortages affect the capacity to deliver services, the interdisciplinary teams continue to use the team resources to maximise treatment to all patients.”

The 114-bed NRH is meant to have 37.5 physiotherapists, and five of these posts are currently vacant.

The spokesperson for the Ireland East Hospital Group said: “Physiotherapist recruitment is ongoing locally at the National Rehabilitation Hospital and with the support of IEHG.

“This involves the hospital utilising a multiplicity of methods to ensure that staffing levels match the needs of the service, to include graduate physiotherapists, national and international recruitment across all disciplines, and the ongoing use of agency and overtime where temporary gaps exist in the service."