Almost half of nurses in State earned first qualification abroad, new data shows

Almost half (49 per cent) of all practicing nurses in Ireland in 2022 obtained their first nursing qualification outside of Ireland, according to data released by the Department of Health on Monday.

India, the United Kingdom and the Philippines were the top three countries for the foreign-trained nurses.

The number of practicing nurses in Ireland stood at 67,808 in 2022, an increase of 5.8 per cent from 2021.

However, the number of practicing midwives in Ireland in 2022 decreased by 3.8 per cent from 2021, to 4,210.

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There were 20,256 practicing physicians in Ireland in 2021, up 17.6 per cent from 2020. Of these, 53.3 per cent were male, while 35.5 per cent were under 35 years of age. Around 5.9 per cent were aged 65 and over.

Almost 58 per cent of all doctors were working as generalist medical practitioners in 2021, but from the specialists practicing physicians, 6 per cent were working as general paediatricians and 11.3 per cent as psychiatrists.

Some 40 per cent of the 25,959 physicians licenced to practice in Ireland in 2021 had obtained their first medical qualification out of Ireland.

Pakistan, Sudan and the United Kingdom were the top three countries for the foreign trained doctors.

The amount of people working as carers increased by 0.3 per cent from 2021 to 2022, to 27,208, and the number of dentists in the country increased by 3.9 per cent to 2,420.

In 2022, there was 5,717 pharmacists working in Ireland, an increase of 3.3 per cent from 2021, while the amount of practicing physiotherapists increased by 5.4 per cent to 5,610 from 2021 to 2022.

49 per cent of the 3,305 people who graduated from health related fields of study in 2021 had studied nursing, and 29.6 per cent had studied medicine.

The remainder of graduates had studied midwifery and dentistry, at 3.5 per cent and 3.9 per cent of total graduates in 2021.

There were 707,764 inpatient discharges in 2021, with an average stay of 6.4 days.

Psychiatric care amounted for 20,602 of these discharges, with an average stay of 14.3 days.

The most common surgical procedure in 2021 was cataract surgery, with 33,348 procedures, where most of these were day cases.

This was followed by caesarean section surgery with 21,523 procedures and hip replacement surgery with 11,159 procedures.

There were 86 hospitals in Ireland in 2022, and 78 per cent of these were publicly administered hospitals. 65 per cent were general hospitals.

The amount of hospital beds increased by 1.1 per cent to 14,567 from 2020 to 2021. 88.6 per cent of these beds were in public hospitals and 93.5 per cent of beds were used for curative purposes, while the remainder were used for rehabilitative or long term care purposes.

Of the total, 11 per cent of hospital beds were used for psychiatric care.

There were 31,842 long term care nursing beds in residential facilities in 2021, down 0.8 per cent from 2020.

In 2022, there were 102 CT scanners, nine PET scanners, 29 gamma cameras and 51 radiation therapy equipment operational in Ireland.

Some 87 MRI units were operational in 2022, 85 per cent of which were being used in a hospital setting.

The data is part of the national data tables on non-monetary healthcare statistics.