HFMA 2021: Harkin announces membership change

In the first speech after taking up the presidency, Mr Harkin (pictured) said the new membership group would receive virtually all the rights and responsibilities of other members. ‘They will be able to vote, to take part in branches and branch meetings. They will receive the weekly email and they can tap into the vast vault of content which is behind our website,’ he said.

The offer will apply to all four nations of the UK and to those in finance in other areas, working in equivalent bands. Further details will be provided in the coming weeks, he added.

He said that the current HFMA membership is ‘too senior, too old, too white, and too male’, and must change to reflect of the workforce it represents and the population it serves.

He continued: ‘I have always been of the belief that the HFMA is, more than anything, about you, the members, and the support networks that develop through branches, committees and events. We believe this change will be the start of a new refreshed era for HFMA. 

‘It will lead to us being able to represent the full diversity of our teams and the entire finance function.’

Mr Harkin, who is director of finance and estates, and deputy chief executive of the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said he was proud to become president – only the second who works in the integrated health and social care service in Northern Ireland. He paid tribute to immediate past president Caroline Clarke, who had helped steer the association successfully through two difficult years.

His presidential theme is Reimagining the future, which has three parts – in the short term, getting over the Covid crisis, looking at the long term and how the NHS must move forward, and reimagining the future of the HFMA. He urged members to get involved in the association's work, adding that volunteers always get more out than they put in. 

He concluded by asking three things of HFMA members – support each other in the immediate challenges; contribute to influencing the future direction of NHS finance; and actively encourage and create a younger, and more diverse and ambitious association.

Read an interview with Owen Harkin in the latest issue of Healthcare Finance