Fórsa and other health unions have called for school places to be made available to essential health workers as soon as it can be done safely. The call came after the HSE agreed to reinstate 2021 flexibility measures, which now aim to help essential health staff whose childcare arrangements collapsed after level five Covid restrictions closed schools and childcare facilities this month.

The reinstated measures include scope for staggered start and finishing times over a longer working day, weekend working, and increased remote working.

But Fórsa says these measures, which didn’t properly resolve childcare issues during the 2020 lockdown, would certainly prove inadequate at a time when Covid cases have soared and thousands of healthcare staff are absent because of Covid-related issues.

Earlier this week, the HSE admitted that over 7,000 hospital, community care and nursing home staff were absent from work because of Covid-related problems including childcare difficulties. The severe strain on staffing has led the HSE to ask staff who have had close contacts to report for work after a Covid test.

Fórsa’s head of health, Éamonn Donnelly, said the reinstated flexibility measures would fall short of the mark when so many staff were absent and Covid-related number of cases in hospitals and ICUs had more than doubled compared to the first wave of the pandemic.

“Fórsa is having daily engagements with the HSE. Last year we said it was crucial that the absence of childcare did not keep staff from going to work, and that’s even more important at this stage in the pandemic. The HSE and the Government should be making every effort to ensure childcare is available to essential health workers,” he said.

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