GHA staff ‘frustrated, demotivated and burnt out’, GSD says

The GSD has said GHA staff are being overworked due to staff shortages and that root causes have not been tackled, with persistent problems leading to demotivated workers.

This is the latest exchange between the GSD and the Government after a number of elective surgeries were cancelled last month.

The Government last week said the GSD had “conflated two separate issues”, calling it an “incorrect characterisation” with elective surgeries cancelled due to a “completely unforeseen” temporary staffing issue and not due to bed shortages.

But in response, the GSD hit back that this is a “kick in the teeth” for GHA staff who are trying to communicate issues with staffing levels.

The GSD described how workers have been saying for months that they are being overworked because they are so stretched in terms of staffing levels and said that the Government is “blatantly ignoring” them.

“The real question is: how is it that, as the Minister for Health glibly claims, only a handful of surgeries have been cancelled over summer in the face of all the underlying problems?” the GSD said.

“The answer seems to be that, despite the significant strain they are under, GHA staff have been able to juggle excessive workloads with a very small number of staff on hand to care for post-operative patients.”

The party added that they have been receiving reports of limited numbers of qualified nurses caring for vast numbers of patients on St Bernard’s Hospital’s wards.

The GSD called these reports, and those of patients being abruptly discharged from hospital to free up beds, worrying.

“None of this is new,” the GSD said.

“What the recent cancellations of surgical procedures does show is what happens when things come to a head, reach breaking point and there is no staff left to pick up the pieces because the Government prefer shiny pictures and statistics, and the wellbeing of both staff and patients is sacrificed in the process.”
Shadow minister for Health, Joelle Ladislaus, said the GSD has been calling out about this for months and yet staff remain overworked.

She also questioned the effect this could have on patient safety.

“The recent cancellation of elective surgeries at the GHA is simply one example of the culmination of issues which GHA staff, and the GSD, have been emphasising for months now, and continue to highlight because the situation has a detrimental impact on staff wellbeing, and the knock-on effect is that patient safety is compromised,” Ms Ladislaus said.

“A decrease in the number of elective surgery cancellations doesn’t mean a successful policy when it comes at the cost of overworked staff who feel frustrated, demotivated and burnt out, and the only thing that seems to matter to this Government is presenting statistics, which don’t provide the public with the bigger picture happening behind closed doors.”

“Decreases in the number of cancellations of elective surgeries are obviously welcome, but to set aside the reasons behind those numbers is to ignore the systemic problems that the GHA is experiencing.”

“If root causes are never tackled, then problems persist.”