Health workers remain ‘ready and waiting’ to hear proposals from the HSE and the Department of Health on the provision of health services over a seven-day week, and their union, Fórsa, is ready to engage and explore how it can be achieved.
The union’s head of Health & Welfare, Ashley Connolly, was responding to a video address by the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, to Fórsa delegates at the union’s Health & Welfare conference taking place today (Thursday) in Letterkenny, County Donegal.
Ms Connolly said Fórsa members, including clerical, admin, management and a range of clinical staff, believe in improving service delivery where and whenever possible: “It’s been two years since we assembled as a division in Galway where the HSE chief executive announced his plans for a seven-day service.
“Our message then was to affirm our willingness to engage in the discussion, and we expressed our readiness to discuss ideas. But nothing happened. No proposals were tabled, no ideas exchanged. Time passed, and we are still ready to talk, and to exchange ideas on how to action this ambitious plan for health service delivery, within the scope of existing resources,” she said.
In her message to delegates, the minister said: “The government vision for health is to provide a seven-day, very balanced public service to the public, regardless of the day of the week that they get sick,” adding the HSE is planning for the delivery of all services “relevant to improving patient flow in emergency departments and outpatient services over seven days,” she said.
In her response Ms Connolly welcomed a planned engagement with the department next week: “There are lots of our members keen to explore the opportunities. They have ideas, they know how and where it will work, and it’s a conversation we’ve been ready to have for two years.
“We also need to be clear-eyed about the implications for managing the HSE’s human resources. Employment has increased, but we continue to be concerned about employment gaps in areas that will be key to the delivery of seven-day services.
“An arbitrary application of ‘5 over 7’ rosters, or mandates for weekend work, are not going to be sufficient, and risk exposing serious resource gaps. Having said that, I know we have members with positive ideas about how to organise resources to extend the current 5-day delivery model, and we’ll approach this process positively, with the aim of exploring how to make health services more accessible, more of the time, to the people who need it,” she said.
Join a union that wins. Join Fórsa.