TG ATTENDS GHA MEETING TO PUT FORWARD STAFF CONCERNS

Last night, we had the chance to attend the GHA's Public Meeting and ask questions on behalf of our members. We were grateful to hear the plans to improve services and care for our community, and to raise some of our concerns about key issues, especially staffing, where there is significant room for improvement and transparency. 

Last year, an inspection report by the Mental Health Board found that staff are not sufficiently empowered to make decisions, that their feedback is not being taken on board, and that this is harming patient outcomes, and the ability to hire or retain staff. This ability to hire and retain staff was admitted to be a key difficulty at last night’s meeting.  At the meeting, we also put forward concerns, shared with us by healthcare staff, that they have still not seen any follow up on a staff satisfaction survey that was carried out over a year ago. We were grateful to hear that the outcome of this survey has been taken on board by management, but by not communicating the results to the staff, it is no surprise that they feel ignored and disempowered. 

Our services can only work properly if we invest in our people. We were grateful to hear the Minister and GHA management have been so hard at work to amend shortages in key areas. But without a long-term strategy, these shortages will always persist. We have to do more to train local workers, and we need to take workers seriously when they highlight reasons why specialists are avoiding Gibraltar.

If you have any experiences with the GHA you'd like to share, or ideas about how we can hold the government to account, make sure you reach out to us.  

Thank you to the GHA leadership team for taking our questions and thank you to all of the healthcare staff who are working tirelessly every day for our community.