New research gathered by the Economic and Social Research Institute has said that Ireland will need thousands of additional healthcare workers by 2040.
The research, funded by the HSE looked into a range of scenarios which reflect different assumptions about population growth and ageing, along with changes in the mix of workforce involved in delivering care. It found that a significant increase in HSE primary and community care workforce requirements, both nationally and regionally.
It was found that up to 2,231 extra public health and community nurses are projected to be required by the time 2040 comes around, leading to an average annual growth of 3%.
The services examined in this research included dietetics, audiology, occupational therapy, podiatry, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and public health and community nursing.
In 2022, these services were delivered by a workforce of roughly 5,650 whole time equivalent (WTE) staff.
It was found in this research, based on population ageing, workforce requirements for all staff categories examined are to increase hugely by 2040.
Aside from nurses, the annual growth requirements are projected to range between 1% and 2.1% by 2040, for professions including dietitians, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists.
For many services, the main projected increase in workforce requirements were found in regions along the east of the country.
On these findings, its leading author, Dr Aoife Brick, Senior Research Officer at the ESRI said: "Our findings show that substantial expansion of the HSE Primary and Community Care workforce will be required across all regions and across all staff categories examined in this report.
"In the context of ongoing Sláintecare implementation, policymakers will need to consider how best to increase workforce supply, alongside measures to manage future service demand, to address these emerging pressures", she added.
The report was welcomed by Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeil.
"Sláintecare is working to build a health and social care service that is sustainable for the future," Ms Carroll MacNeill said.
"Increasing capacity, both in terms of workforce and infrastructure, along with productivity measures is key to address Ireland's long-term demographic challenges", she said. "These projections support our planning efforts to build capacity by understanding future workforce requirements to meet the needs of our people".
Elsewhere, HSE Chief People Officer, Anne Marie Hoey, said the report will support engagement between stakeholders and funders of the medium and long term planning required to ensure that the service has the necessary workforce required to deliver care.
"In parallel, the HSE is already working closely with the Department of Health and other government partners to develop solutions to grow the domestic workforce", she said.
