Dec 09 - GSD Concerned Over GHA Promotions
The GSD says it is concerned with the outcome of interviews, held some months ago, with the recent announcement that all three competing applicants ended up obtaining the single post advertised of District Nursing Charge Nurse/Sister Manager at the Primary Care Centre, despite this not having been announced beforehand. The GSD argues that this is surprising as due process in the recruitment of GHA managerial personnel appears to have been changed without explanation. The Opposition says this move defies logic as the “goalposts seem to have moved.”
However, the GSD understand the GHA has justified such a decision on the basis that they wish to expand the services for Community Nursing in Gibraltar. The total compliment of staff in the department is now around 15, inclusive of a current Charge Nurse/Sister Manager and the three new Charge Nurses/Sister Managers. The GSD asks whether a doubling in non-managerial nursing staff to bring balance to the service is to be expected.
Isobel Ellul-Hammond, Opposition Spokesman for Health, said: “Whilst the GSD welcomes any development of services in District Nursing, we believe the correct process would have been to first recruit the advertised post of Charge Nurse/Sister Manager, and then advertise the posts necessary for the development of District Nursing in the knowledge that such expansion is going to take place. This would have allowed all staff members in the GHA to consider and compete for such posts. Having moved the goalposts for promotion after the issue of a vacancy notice for the available post, other GHA staff would have been disadvantaged and not provided the opportunity to apply. This invites speculation that whoever was privy to the idea of expansion of the unit were placed in a position of both advantage and privilege.”
