The GSD has issued a statement highlighting concerns around staffing levels within the GHA.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The Minister for Health’s response to issues relating to the GHA’s staffing levels once again demonstrates a government which is out of touch with the everyday lived experiences of people, and which prefers quoting  data out of context while ignoring the bigger picture, which GHA staff and patients are trying to provide. Dismissing those experiences as “gossip”, as the Government have done, is not just disrespectful, it’s a serious mistake because the reality of the situation is lost in statistics. These are not just numbers speaking  up, they are real people.  

The Government continue to claim that the numbers of nurses employed by the GHA has grown in the past  14 years, but it does so in a vacuum and without considering all the many factors that impact whether there  are enough qualified professionals to run the health service safely. It’s convenient to overlook the fact that  expansion of services now means that staff are overstretched because the infrastructure isn’t growing at the  same pace. If that’s not possible then it can compromise the expansion into new services and hamper existing  services.  

The fact of the matter, which is backed by data provided by the Minister for Health in Parliament recently,  together with what GHA staff, and UNITE on their behalf have been voicing, is that there are many vacancies  which remain unfilled for prolonged periods of time. What happens in the meantime? 

The shadow for Health, Joelle Ladislaus said: “At no point have the opposition sought to claim that the  number of surgical cancellations hasn’t decreased. The most significant points are still being missed by this  Government. Staff are clearly being overstretched and have expressed concerns about patient safety  because there aren’t enough staff to care for the number of patients. Faced with that reality, the  Government continue to congratulate themselves because the numbers show that surgery cancellations  (overall) have decreased in recent months. The numbers which are most significant, and should be made  public by the Minister for Health, are the ratio of registered nurses to patients on wards for every shift in  recent months; the numbers relating to the staff surveys undertaken in 2024 and 2025; and the data arising  from a skill mix review, which hasn’t been undertaken in a long time and will show where staff are most  needed. Those numbers viewed alongside what staff and patients are saying provide the fuller picture.”