  |
Carry on working, without becoming complacent, minister tells GHA staff
|
? Minister of health Yvette del Agua made the following speech at last night's GHS Staff Awards ceremony:
Before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to two of our very valued staff members who sadly passed away recently. I would ask to please rise for one minute?s silence in honour of Sean McCarthy and Angelique Acolina.
Needless to say, it is an honour to once again address you on the occasion of our third annual awards ceremony, and to warmly welcome the nominees, their friends and family, our generous sponsors and all our invited guests.
The GHA is a big organisation which employs many people, all of whom are tasked with delivering the best possible health care services to the public. It is not an easy job. After being in post for 16 months, I am in an even better position than I was last year when I addressed you, to assess, judge and therefore appreciate the enormous effort that is required on the part of Management and staff, to deliver the many and varied services that the GHA provides to a community of our size, and to deliver them to the high standards that this discerning community rightly expects.. It is a huge moral and professional responsibility to be entrusted with the health and sometimes the lives of others.
The GHA and all who form part of it, are continuously held accountable for their actions and performance. And so it should be. Due to the nature of our work, we are subjected to a high degree of public scrutiny and sometimes criticism, at times justified and at times unwarranted. We have a transparent and effective complaints procedure which not only serves to provide the public with an avenue of redress, but just as importantly, also allows us to improve and to grow and to learn from our mistakes. We live in an increasingly litigious environment and for this reason also, it is important that professional standards are met and maintained. Apart of the huge amount of training and education that goes on within the GHA in this regard, I recently had an approach from the Nursing Union who expressed an interest in medico-legal issues pertaining to professional nursing practice.
In co-operation with the Union a series of seminars have been organised, some of which have already been delivered. I am personally delighted that the GHA and Unite Union are working so well together in maintaining and improving professional nursing practice. As your elected representatives, your Unions know that my door is always open to them to discuss any issue that affects staff and to work together to try and resolve them.
I referred earlier to the fact that the criticism that is levelled at us is sometimes warranted and at other times unjustified. This is expected to happen, within reason, in any community. What is not normal, and is not acceptable, is for the staff of the GHA to have become the target and the hobby horse of a certain so-called weekly newspaper, whose editor has made it his life ambition to constantly denigrate the GHA and everyone who works in it.
I am acutely aware of the distress that the publication of these articles causes staff members in different sectors of our organisation. I am informed that last week, it was the turn of staff at the Primary Care Centre. In a clear attempt to humiliate and ridicule them, the staff was accused of not wanting to attend telephone calls because, and I quote, ?it would interfere with their chatty conversations about their children and their knitting patterns?.
Those responsible for printing this garbage should research alleged incidents more carefully before making them public. Their attempts to use the staff as a tool to try and undermine public confidence in our health service, only serves to unfairly and undeservedly demoralise them.
I would urge you all to carry on working to the best of your ability and not to let the contents of certain printing mediums get you down. I honestly feel that the vast majority of our community appreciate and value the services that we provide. You all know that I like to visit the wards on a regular basis, not only to chat to staff but to obtain feedback from patients and visitors. I tell you, the positive feedback that I get, by far outweighs the negative. It is heart-warming, and indeed makes me immensely proud, to hear so many expressions of gratitude and words of praise about our staff, about the cleanliness of our facilities, about our excellent equipment, our latest technology, and generally about the high standards of our services.
We have demonstrated that the GHA can work very efficiently as a team, meeting head-on the challenges that present themselves from time to time. A fine example of this is the recent appeal for a bone marrow donor for a young child suffering from leukaemia. The coordination and success of such a major initiative, whilst working within a crucial deadline, was a prime example of how we can deliver as an Organisation to the highest professional standards.
But we must not become complacent. We must continually strive to improve, to advance, to excel. You know that you have my support. I will walk with you along the road which will lead to even more improvements and advancements, on the part of all of us, and for the benefit of all of us, because at the end of the day, we are all users and therefore beneficiaries of our health service.
It is right and fitting, and indeed an essential requirement for one?s morale and spirit, irrespective of the position you hold or the work you undertake, to receive praise and recognition for one?s efforts. It provides, what I call, nutrition for the soul.
The Staff Awards Ceremony is the perfect forum to do this. It gives me great pleasure to pay tribute to those members of staff who will today be receiving their long service awards and to commend the 5 nominees, whether individuals or teams, whose contribution has been outstanding or exemplary this last year, in one way or another.
Congratulations to all of you and enjoy this day of celebration.
|
|
|
|
