Minister for Health and Shadow Minister tour GHA facilities

The Minister for Health Gemma Arias-Vasquez and the Shadow Minister Joelle Ladislaus recently toured GHA facilities, including the Omnicell stock control system, the new Catheterisation Lab, and the stores department, to enhance collaboration and understanding of healthcare operations.

The visit, which took place at the GHA’s theatre department, arose following a commitment made by Ms Arias-Vasquez during this year’s budget debate to invite Ms Ladislaus to see the system for herself and have it explained by the professionals utilising it daily.

The Omnicell system is a first-class, fully automated stock control system and is used by many NHS hospitals.

By providing accurate tracking of existing stock and flagging low stock levels, the system ensures that essential supplies are always available and significantly reduces the amount of excess stock wastage.

These features have already led to a substantial reduction in operation cancellations caused by supply shortages, said a statement from the Government.

Ms Arias-Vasquez also took the opportunity to show Ms Ladislaus the newly built Catheterisation Lab. This brand new facility, which has already successfully treated its first patient in Gibraltar, will be officially inaugurated later this week.

Additionally, they visited the GHA’s stores department, which has been the subject of recent parliamentary questions by Ms Ladislaus.

"It was a pleasure to show my shadow opposition colleague, Ms Ladislaus, around some parts of the GHA last week,” said Ms Arias-Vasquez.

“During the Budget Debate earlier this year, I spoke about the rollout of a new stock control system at the GHA and thought it would be beneficial to invite the Shadow Minister for Health to see the system for herself and have it explained by the professionals who use it daily.”

“We also took the opportunity to visit the Cath Lab, which treated its first patient last week and which I am looking forward to officially inaugurating later this week.”

“Additionally, and given that Ms Ladislaus had asked me a number of parliamentary questions last month on the GHA stores department, I thought it would be beneficial for all of us to visit the department and give Ms Ladislaus the opportunity to better understand how the department operates.”

“I would like to thank Ms Ladislaus for agreeing to the visit and hope that we can arrange further visits to other areas of the GHA in future.”