The GSD has issued a statement calling for clarification from the Government regarding the GHA’s internal complaint process and the Minister’s involvement in staff matters.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

Is the Minister for Health properly addressing the issue of complaints about staff conduct within the GHA  and ensuring that the GHA deals with them appropriately? 

The Shadow Minister for Health, Joelle Ladislaus, said: “Since before the most recent session of Parliament  last week, we have been receiving reports that complaints of bullying and mismanagement at the GHA, which  the Minister is aware of, have been swept under the carpet. Comments made on social media in recent days  support those claims, particularly since there have been suggestions that the Minister has been present at  meetings to discuss some of the specific key issues raised by CCU staff, which include the conduct of one or  more GHA employees and the outcome of investigations into that conduct. That is contrary to the Minister’s  specific denial in Parliament that she had ever been present when asked why she had been present at a  meeting to discuss the conduct of a GHA employee. If so, the Minister should correct the record. It is no  wonder that staff are being left feeling that they have nowhere to turn.” 

When employees make complaints, but they are not given any satisfactory recourse and they are simply  expected to soldier on, it creates a toxic working environment where staff are afraid to speak up and  problems will fester and grow. The statement made by the GHA last week once again demonstrates how this  Government’s style is reactivity over simply listening to its employees and entering into constructive,  transparent dialogue to find solutions; it seems that, under this purportedly socialist Government,  employees have lost their voice.  

The statement made by UNITE last week in respect of the GHA’s unsatisfactory approach to handling  grievances raised by staff is concerning, not least because of the erosion in the trust between employees  and their employer, but also because of the inevitable risk that mishandling such grievances stands to have  on patient safety and the service offered by the GHA.  

If GHA employees with the specialist knowledge and experience are ignored when they raise concerns about  issues that impact patient safety directly, such as the courageous CCU staff referred to in UNITE’s statements  last week were, it speaks of deeply worrying systemic issues within the GHA. Especially troubling is the fact  that irrespective of the complaints made by CCU staff having been found to be substantiated, and  recommendations made, this appears to have been largely ignored and no significant changes introduced.