Home HR News Interim Recommendations Report of the National Taskforce on the NCHD Workforce published

Interim Recommendations Report of the National Taskforce on the NCHD Workforce published

HRHQ Healthcare worker

by HRHQ Editorial Team

The National Taskforce on the NCHD Workforce was established by the Minister for Health in September 2022. The purpose is to put in place sustainable workforce planning strategies and policies to address and improve NCHD experience, in support of present and future retention of NCHDs in Ireland.

In its first six months, the National Taskforce on the NCHD Workforce has developed interim recommendations to address identified challenges for NCHDs, strengthened by specific implementation requirements, including oversight and monitoring structures for successful delivery of the recommendations.

Welcoming the Interim report of the National Taskforce on the NCHD Workforce, Minister Donnelly said:

“I recognise that significant change is required to ensure that we improve the NCHD experience and work-life balance through the development and implementation of improved NCHD structures and supports in hospital sites. NCHDs are a critical part of our workforce and need to be supported to ensure they are retained in our health service. I commend the work of the Taskforce members and I look forward to engaging and supporting them in the next phase of their work.”

The Minister has written to the HSE Chief Executive Officer to ensure that the recommendations are prioritised and implemented in full.

The Taskforce is working to improve the NCHD experience and work-life balance through the development and implementation of improved NCHD structures and supports in hospital sites. It aims to further develop and foster a culture of education and training at clinical site level and plan for future configuration of the medical workforce to support delivery of healthcare in Ireland.

The Taskforce vision for NCHDs is to deliver high-quality education and training for all NCHDs in an accountable, respectful and supportive working environment that facilitates sustainable work-life balance. Individual workstreams have focused on specific priority themes and agreed a programme of work to deliver on this vision, and on their terms of reference, by the end of October 2023.

The workstreams have been progressing the priority themes with the common goal of developing and delivering short-term solutions that can be implemented in the immediate term, along with longer-term recommendations for improvements that require planning and collaboration with stakeholders.

The next phase of the Taskforce will develop medium to longer term recommendations to support NCHDs. A final set of recommendations will be produced in a final report to the Minister by the end of October 2023.