Ireland is set to attract more nurses and midwives from Kenya into the health system as a result of an agreement being developed between the two countries, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said.
The Minister said he was aware that the loss of key health personnel could be an issue for less wealthy countries but the two governments would work on a deal that would be ethical and in line with WHO and OECD guidelines.
Under growing financial pressure in recent years, the Kenyan government has struggled to provide employment opportunities for many of its healthcare graduates and was recently obliged to cut public spending across a range of areas in order to secure additional funding from the International Monetary Fund.
The UK signed an agreement with the country that allowed for greater movement of workers in 2021 and Germany followed suit last month. There have also been agreements with Austria and Saudi Arabia.
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“I am aware that there have been worrying global trends in workforce migration in recent years, which have seen higher income countries benefit disproportionately from the mobility of health professionals, while the benefits to the country from which they migrate may be comparatively less,” said Mr Donnelly as work on the Irish agreement with Kenya was announced on Monday.
“By working together with Kenya, in line with our shared principles and WHO-OECD guidance on best practice, we can inform a new generation of fair and ethical bilateral agreements on health workforce migration,” he said.
In a statement, the Department of Health said “the aim of this collaboration of Irish and Kenyan officials will concentrate on workforce planning in the health sector by addressing nursing and midwifery shortages in Ireland while investing in the ongoing development of these professions in Kenya. The bilateral agreement will contribute to augmenting the global nursing and midwifery workforce in a managed and sustainable way.”
Nursing shortages in Ireland remain significant and the Parliamentary Budget Office projected earlier this year the country will need an additional 13,000 by 2041 to maintain current ratios.
To achieve the figure, it suggested, Ireland will have to educate or import about 2,000 extra nurses annually. Mr Donnelly said increasing the number of training places remained a priority for the Government and said progress had been made in the area to date.
“Ireland is committed to developing a sustainable domestic health and care workforce, including nurses and midwives. We’ve made significant progress in expanding the number of undergraduate places. Ensuring we retain our graduates and provide attractive career pathways is a priority for me.”
Three-quarters of more than 6,000 nurses and midwives registering in the Irish system for the first time last year were educated abroad, however, with more than 3,000 coming from India.
The health sector, meanwhile, accounted for almost a third of the 30,174 work permits issued by the Government in the first nine months of this year. At 9,907, the amount of work permits issued to health workers was almost twice the number granted in the tech sector.
Just over 10,000 permits across all sectors were granted to workers from India while those from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ghana – all countries in which the recruitment of nurses to Ireland has grown in recent years – accounted for 750, 776, and 288 respectively. The equivalent number from Kenya to the end of September was 140.
Asked previously, about the trend, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said “a country like Ireland, because of its bad policy, because of its lack of investment, is now going to these countries and taking their essential workers”. She said the Minister had said he did not want to do it but it was still happening.
The INMO, meanwhile, is balloting its members on industrial action over staff shortages.
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