Oct 18 - GSD: “GHA Complaints On The Increase”
- Opposition claims complaints and cancelled operations have increased
- “Staggering increase” in Xanit expenditure
The GSD has said that, “despite record spending on the GHA, which this year has exceeded £100 million,” the number of complaints communicated to the Opposition from patients and staff alike, “has increased significantly”.
A statement continued: “These complaints not only concern long standing issues, such as waiting times at the A&E Department or the appointment system at the Primary Care Centre, in respect of which formal complaints to the GHA Complaints Board have virtually doubled since the year ending 31 March 2013.
“They also include complaints that some departments within the GHA have been downsized in areas of expertise, in terms of staff and resources, and that many relatively simple procedures which have hitherto been successfully handled locally, are now being outsourced to Xanit in Spain. This is resulting in unnecessary costs and, in many cases, low morale amongst professional medical staff who understandably feel undervalued and demotivated. In fact, the expenditure on Xanit has increased from £1.2 million for the year ending 31 March 2011 to £7.2 million for the year ending 31 March 2016. That is a staggering increase.
“Outsourcing to Xanit is not only an expense to the taxpayer. It is also a huge inconvenience and expense to many patients and their families who at times have to remain there for days once discharged, due to the fact that there are no beds available in St Bernard’s Hospital to bring them back to. The issue of bed shortages could have, of course, been alleviated had the opening of the Dementia Unit not been delayed now for five years, even though it was very near completion when the GSD left office.
“In addition, from answers to Parliamentary questions, we have also been able to ascertain that in the year ending 31 March 2016, there were 346 surgery cancellations. That is nearly 100 more than the previous year. These high numbers of cancellations will not be helped by the fact that a number of excellent consultant surgeons have left the GHA in recent times some of which have cited to us, poor morale as one of the issues. That has led to an over reliance on locum surgeons on short term contracts, which is not a good substitute.
“The Opposition will always welcome responsible expenditure in the areas of health, education and social services. These areas are the fundamental pillars of any fair and socially just society and it is right that they should be properly funded. However, higher spending must visibly result in better standards of care for the service users.
“Over the next few months we will be offering our own ideas and solutions to some of these problems based on our listening to the professionals and service users. We invite the Government to do the same.”
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