Fórsa members in the HSE have withdrawn cooperation with interim agreements for the implementation of community healthcare organisations (CHOs) from today (25th July).
The union action includes stopping cooperation with reporting and governance arrangements, which will create a major headache for senior management without having an immediate impact on services to the public.
Fórsa members in the HSE have withdrawn cooperation with interim agreements for the implementation of community healthcare organisations (CHOs) from today (25th July).
Interim reporting relationships in the CHO structures currently govern local reports to the heads of four functions: mental health, primary care, social care, and health and wellbeing.
The decision to withdraw cooperation from interim arrangements came in response to a health department decision to stall the roll-out of the CHO programme until ten-year Sláintecare reform programme was fully implemented.
The union had deferred action until a recent meeting with HSE management. But its officials were stunned that no health department officials attended the discussion, which was meant to address Fórsa’s concerns.
The decision to withdraw cooperation from interim arrangements came in response to a health department decision to stall the roll-out of the CHO programme until ten-year Sláintecare reform programme was fully implemented.
Fórsa’s head of health Éamonn Donnelly accused the health department of side-stepping the real issues, and doing a major disservice to health service users, by pulling the proposed pilots. “The transition to Sláintecare will be much smoother if solid community healthcare structures are in place. These important reforms will be stymied unless the planned new structures are developed quickly,” he said.
SláinteCare is a ten-year plan for the introduction of quality healthcare, free at the point of need, which has been backed by all the main political parties.
“Community services are the bedrock of these ambitious plans for fair, affordable, high-quality health services, and it’s perfectly possible to establish structures that can be smoothly adapted to SláinteCare if and when it’s implemented,” according to Mr Donnelly.
Talks on staffing and structural issues related to the roll-out of the CHOs got underway in January, but momentum has been lost. Nine new ‘community healthcare organisations’ (CHOs) have been established to manage and deliver the provision of primary and community care services across the country. The negotiations between Fórsa and the HSE have focussed on management and governance structures, qualifications and reporting relationships in the new bodies.