According to Stephen Donnelly, the Irish Minister for Health, Ireland is moving towards an agreement with Kenya aimed at enhancing the recruitment of nurses and midwives into the Irish healthcare system. Despite acknowledging the potential issue of draining crucial healthcare personnel from less affluent regions, Donnelly insisted that both nations would strive to create a responsible, equitable arrangement compliant with WHO and OECD principles.
Financial constraints have been hampering the Kenyan government’s ability to secure jobs for a considerable number of healthcare graduates over the recent years. Added to these difficulties was the recent pressure to reduce public expenditures in various sectors to acquire additional funds from the International Monetary Fund. Similar labour-related accords were signed by Kenya with the UK in 2021 and Germany last month, with Austria and Saudi Arabia also entering into such agreements.
Donnelly revealed his concern over global patterns in workforce migration. Higher income countries have been reaping substantial benefits from the migration of health professionals, leaving their countries of origin at a lesser advantage. As the Irish-Kenyan agreement was unveiled earlier this week, Donnelly asserted that by collaborating with Kenya adhering to shared principles and WHO-OECD guidelines, they could shape a fresh batch of righteous and ethical health workforce migration bilateral agreements.
The Health Department announced that this joint initiative between Ireland and Kenya would address the shortage of nurses and midwives in Ireland, whilst also fostering the continuous progression of these professions in Kenya. The department believes that this bilateral agreement will support the global pool of nurses and midwives in a balanced and enduring manner.
There continues to be a marked insufficiency of nurses in Ireland, and it was anticipated by the Parliamentary Budget Office earlier this year that an additional 13,000 would be required by 2041 to preserve the present ratios.
The proposal points out that Ireland would need to train or import approximately an additional 2,000 nurses each year to meet the target. Mr Donnelly emphasised that the government was prioritising augmenting the slots for training and had already seen advancements in this direction.
In line with their commitment to craft a sustainable domestic health care workforce inclusive of nurses and midwives, Ireland had been successful in increasing the seats for undergraduate courses. Retaining graduates and providing attractive career paths was of utmost importance.
However, three-quarters of over 6,000 nurses and midwives that registered with the Irish system for the first time last year were foreign educated, a notable part being from India, representing more than 3,000.
The health sector comprised nearly a third of the 30,174 work permits handed out by the government in the first three quarters of this year. At 9,907, health sector work permits were almost double those issued to tech sector workers.
Over 10,000 permits were granted to workers from India across all sectors while those from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana – countries that have seen an uptick in nurse recruitment for Ireland recently – accounted for 750, 776, and 288 respectively. Up to the end of September, the number from Kenya was 140.
When questioned about this trend, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, the general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), stated that due to poor policies and insufficient investment, Ireland was now poaching essential workers from these countries. She asserted the Minister’s reluctance towards this action, yet it was evident that it continued. Concurrently, the INMO is polling its members about industrial action regarding staff scarcity.