Trade unionists last week heard a call for a culture shift “to rebalance our healthcare model, which remains far too hospital-centric.” Speaking at the biennial conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Fórsa official Catherine Keogh said long-overdue investment in primary and community care was necessary in its own right, and would also free up badly-needed hospital capacity.

She was speaking in support of an Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) motion that called for increased health spending.

“All aspects of physical and mental healthcare need to be properly funded – from health promotion, through community services, to acute care and rehabilitation. Dignity, quality and equality are rights due to everyone who needs health care,” she said.

Catherine also said that funding difficulties in Section 39 agencies highlighted another problem with the model in this country, “which years ago outsourced vital health provision to the voluntary sector.”

She said Fórsa had worked with ICTU and other unions to achieve a pay restoration process in the sector. “Working together again, we should be fighting for a system where citizens who use and deliver health services in the CV sector enjoy the same rights and dignity as everyone else,” she said.