Fórsa is to consider seeking a Labour Court intervention to challenge HSE delays in meeting its commitments on issues related to community healthcare organisation (CHO) structures.The union says management is dragging its heels on previously-agreed measures including ‘in-charge III’ positions and enhanced structures for primary and social care, which were meant to be in place by the end of last month.

During the summer, Fórsa members in the HSE withdrew cooperation with interim CHO arrangements after the health department reneged on a commitment to establish the networks in advance of the implementation of the much-heralded SláinteCare initiative.
 
The union action, which blocked cooperation with reporting and governance arrangements, was lifted when HSE management agreed to enter a WRC process to deal with a range of CHO-related issues. Agreement was subsequently reached, but the HSE has now missed a number of important implementation deadlines.

Fórsa’s head of health Éamonn Donnelly said the timely introduction of effective community health care structures was essential to the transition to SláinteCare.

“These important reforms will be stymied unless robust new structures are developed quickly. 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,” 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.