Fórsa’s has sought a meeting with health minister Stephen Donnelly to discuss the long-promised appointment of a health and social care professional (HSCP) policy advisor in the Department of Health.

The union says the lack of movement on the issue, which was raised directly with the minister in a meeting in August 2020, is creating “a major stumbling block” in efforts to agree durable new community health structures, which are fundamental to the Sláintecare programme and pandemic response.

Fórsa made contact with the health department secretary general, Robert Watt, last June in an effort to initiate discussions on the implementation of the position. There has been no response.

The union says the post needs to be placed within an autonomous HSCP stream, rather than being a subset of the nursing profession as had previously been proposed. This is because HSCPs are to have a central role in a developing a new health model with far more emphasis on community-led treatments and processes, to improve access to local services and ease pressure on acute hospitals.

Fórsa acknowledges that the pandemic response has been top priority over the last two years. But it says that, despite this, there has been a massive expansion of community health structures during the same period. This includes the establishment of 96 interim community health networks and enhanced community care networks.

In his letter to the minister Fórsa’s head of health Éamonn Donnelly says the union negotiated the new structures as part of its commitment to a pandemic response beyond acute hospital care. But he warned that most of the agreements reached were temporary.

“It is absolutely clear, that HSCPs are going to be placed at front and centre of service planning and the delivery of Sláintecare. It is no longer tenable to think that this can be effected in the absence of an autonomous HSCP policy advisor,” he said.

Éamonn pointed out that this is the approach taken in health services Europe and the United Kingdom.