Dr. Yvonne Smyth:

That service was run by my colleague, Dr. Susan Connolly, in Galway. The hiring embargo the Deputy mentioned, which started in October 2023, meant that any post that had not been filled at that time and has since become vacated or where somebody has left on maternity leave could not be filled. Now, any post that was not filled in January 2024 is being suppressed, as it is called. That is having an enormous impact on our ability to deliver services. These community hubs are led by a cardiologist in conjunction with experienced cardiovascular nurses, supported by cardiac physiologists to perform diagnostics. It is an issue where we do not have those key people and key nursing staff. In our locality, the service still exists in part, but not in its entirety and not to its tremendous potential. There has been great investment in the community and great opportunities with our community cardiology hubs but, unfortunately, we will not see the fruition of that because of the hiring embargo.

There are two other main issues with regard to the hiring embargo. One is cardiac rehabilitation. Of all the things we do for our patients, it is one that they appreciate most in terms of their quality of life but it has also been shown to reduce their chance of dying or of being readmitted to hospital. In 2009, we had 216 whole-time equivalents, WTEs, in cardiac rehabilitation. Now, we have 85 in hospitals and 50 in the community. Our workforce in cardiac rehabilitation has dropped by almost two thirds. Even in 2015, we looked at it and, at that time, we could only meet about 39% of the demand. We are falling way behind because of this hiring embargo.

Cardiac physiologists are a key part of our workforce. These are extremely skilled people. The Government has invested in their education, which is tremendous, both at an undergraduate and postgraduate level. Yet, we conducted a brief survey last week. Fourteen acute hospitals replied to us. They all have vacancies. Some of them are missing up to five cardiac physiologists. In the community now, we have beautiful physical infrastructure and we have equipment we cannot use because of these vacancies. Our inpatients will wait days because of them and our outpatients will wait years because of them.