Health workers say they are "ready and waiting" to hear proposals from the HSE and the Department of Health on the provision of health services over a seven-day week.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill told Fórsa delegates via a video address that the Government’s vision is to provide a seven-day health service that meets the public’s needs, regardless of the day of the week.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said this will reduce trolley numbers, speed up access to care and time patients spend in hospital unnecessarily.
The HSE are planning for the delivery of all services that are relevant to improving patient flow in Emergency Departments and outpatient services over seven days.
HSE CEO Bernard Gloster has asked Regional Executive Officers to examine what is required to do this by the end of June.
The minister said: "Plans are in place for the HSE to meet with Fórsa over the coming weeks to ensure we all work together to achieve this ambitious, but very necessary goal."
Fórsa’s Health and Welfare Divisional Conference - which represents more than 35,000 workers including health and social care professionals, clerical, administrative management and technical staff - is taking place in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
The conference heard plans for a seven-day health service that were announced at a previous conference two years ago in Co Galway.
Fórsa’s head of Health and Welfare said the union’s message two years ago was to affirm their willingness to engage and that position remains unchanged.
Ashley Connolly welcomed a planned engagement with the Department of Health due to take place next week.
"It’s a conversation we’ve been ready to have for two years …we also need to be clear-eyed about the implications for managing the HSE’s human resources," she said.
"Employment has increased, but we continue to be concerned about employment gaps in areas that will be key to the delivery of seven-day services," she added.
Ms Connolly said said "an arbitrary application of ‘5 over 7’ rosters, or mandates for weekend work, are not going to be sufficient", adding it would "risk exposing serious resource gaps".
She said members have "positive ideas about how to organise resources to extend the current five-day delivery model".
She added that Fórsa will "approach this process with a positive approach, with the aim of exploring how to make health services more accessible, more of the time, to the people who need it".
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Low morale among health care staff – Fórsa survey
New research, commissioned by Fórsa based on the input of almost 3,800 health staff, has revealed that staff morale in health services is at a critically low level.
More than two thirds of almost 3,800 public health care staff who responded to a survey described staff morale as either low or terrible.
Ireland’s largest public service trade union commissioned independent think-tank TASC to conduct the research.
Almost half of respondents, or 48%, said the situation had worsened over the last two years, while over half, or 53%, said low morale is negatively affecting the quality of care.
The research identified understaffing, a sense of disconnect between frontline staff and management, lack of recognition and underappreciation alongside increasingly negative public perceptions of health and care systems as factors in the decline in morale.
Fórsa National Secretary Linda Kelly said the research confirms what members have been talking about over the last couple years with increasing frequency.
Ms Kelly said: "Staff shortages, in a wide range of health service areas, has really increased the pressure on health and social care staff and that has placed a heavy toll on staff morale."
She said the most concerning aspect of the research is the extent to which staff are actively considering leaving their jobs to work elsewhere.
"When experienced staff retire, or leave employment for other reasons, it represents a very significant loss of skills, an increase in workload for remaining staff, which further diminishes morale and the cycle then continues," she said.
"That's not sustainable," she added.
Donegal Fórsa member Angela McGinley said her department is currently at the loss of two people, both on stress-related sick leave.
Ms McGinley said while low morale jeopardises workforce retention, it also compromises service delivery.
"These colleagues are not being replaced and this has a knock-on effect of the rest of us, creating additional work, people hastily grabbing a bit of lunch at their desk, while trying to maintain a service that responds to our patients," she said.
Fórsa General Secretary Kevin Callinan told RTÉ News that the Minister for Health needs to engage with the result of the survey.
"I have never seen morale as low in all my time working in the health service - this is a real wake-up call," Mr Callinan said.
The TASC research combined an online survey of close to 3,800 participants, focus group research and a literature review, drawing responses from HSE, Tusla, and Section 38 and voluntary health organisations.
Respondents include clerical and administrative staff and health and social care professionals.
Calls to implement WRC proposals without delay
Earlier this year, health workers voted to accept proposals aimed at resolving a dispute over staffing numbers after agreement was reached with the HSE at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Under the deal, maternity leave cover in the health service will be prioritised, there will be greater consultation with unions on future staffing decisions and an increase in the conversion of agency posts to HSE jobs.
Fórsa's national secretary is calling for the swift implementation of the agreement in light of the survey findings on staff morale.
"The retention initiatives, whether that’s in the recent WRC proposals or in other collective agreements like the career pathway review - need to be implement without delay for staff because we don’t have a health service if we don’t have health staff," Ms Kelly said.
