Sir, – Health and social care professionals deliver a quarter of all patient and client care in Ireland. They are the people who diagnose and treat you in hospital and in the community. They are regulated and must be registered with Coru, the health and social care professional regulatory body, to practise.
Dietitians are the only health professionals regulated to provide nutrition advice and care to patients. For over 40 years there has been no increase in the number of Leaving Cert students who can study dietetics in Ireland. The joint programme provided by Trinity College Dublin and Technological University Dublin has provided an average of only 20 places each year since 1983. This BSc programme attracts the top 2 per cent of CAO applicants.
Until 2016, the only alternative for students who didn’t get an undergraduate place was to travel to the UK to study. Since then, University College Dublin, the University of Limerick and University College Cork have developed Coru-accredited postgraduate programmes and produce excellent dietitians every year who work across our health service. This alternative pathway comes at a cost, with two-thirds of dietitians who graduate this year having spent six years in university and paid over €30,000 to join the profession. Due to the HSE pay and numbers policy, when they graduate, they can’t get jobs.
Dietetic employment in the HSE has increased by over 50 per cent in the last five years, so there is a recognition that there is a need for the care that dietitians provide. Dietitians look after patients throughout their lives, from supporting new mothers as they feed their babies to helping families support their relatives to live independently in their community as they age.
Like our health and social care profession colleagues, they are mainly women, and a recent survey, conducted by the Health and Social Care Professions Alliance indicated that over 90 percent of maternity leaves are not being filled due to the barriers put in place by the pay and numbers strategy.
There will always be a need to manage budgets and provide value for money to the public, but we must remember that it’s not just numbers, it’s not just pay, it’s people. – Yours, etc,
JENNIFER FEIGHAN,
Chief Executive,
Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute,
Joint Chair,
Health and Social Care Professions Alliance,
Dublin 14.