GHA launches anonymous hotline

The Gibraltar Health Authority has launched an anonymous telephone hotline in a bid to further understand and listen to grievances of the general public and employees.
The Patient Advocacy and Liaision Service [PALS] at the GHA will man the hotline, ensuring that complaints are investigated.
The new service was the idea of the Minister for Health, Neil Costa, who understands many people do not want to submit complaints publically.
The anonymous hotline aims to improve the quality of the health centre by solving any issues identified through the phone calls.
“I am not one to brush anything under the carpet,” Mr Costa told the Chronicle yesterday.
“I want to know if things are wrong and I would rather that people write to me directly so I could move to try to resolve what I can than not be informed. The only way that this place is going to improve is by learning from its mistakes.”
“If there are things that people consider sensitive and they don’t want to betray their name, but they do think it is important enough to bring to my attention now they have a number in which they are able to do so.”
However, Mr Costa wants the community to understand there should be no concern in approaching publically him with any grievances.
“It occurred to me that there may be some complaints and some grievances that may not be reaching me or anybody else because the person does not want to do so in a public manner,” Mr Costa said.
“That also means an anonymous tip may not be sufficient for us to resolve something because there might not be enough information. We would not be able to call that person back because it is anonymous. But on the other hand, an anonymous tip off may help us start an investigation that reveals the subject matter of the complaint allowing us to resolve the issue.”
He added: “If things are not working I really want to know because I really want to sort them out. The health service belongs to the community, we are all paying for it and if something is not working properly I need to know.”
The grievances will be dealt with by PALS staff and the relevant GHA officials depending on the nature of the complaint. The hotline grants the GHA at extra tool to solve outstanding problems.
“In a small place like Gibraltar, sometimes people will not wish to publicly make complaints,” Mr Costa said.
“The telephone hotline is wholly in keeping with our overriding aim of continuously striving to improve the quality of the health care that we provide to our community.”
The hotline number is 20007919 and callers can leave a voicemail message after a short recorded introductory greeting.