Minor ops threat as 10 beds close at PEH
Friday 17th April 2009, 1:00PM BST.
TEN beds will close at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital because of staff shortages.
The announcement from Health and Social Services comes just over two weeks since it told the Guernsey Press that it had no immediate plans to do so.
The move might mean minor operations being delayed as the department works to address the shortages before September.
‘Until now, vacancies had been covered by a combination of agency nurses and existing staff working additional hours, while we have made strenuous efforts to recruit to two vacant senior posts,’ said a spokesman for the department.
‘However, the departure of another two senior nursing staff has now meant that a temporary reduction in bed numbers has become inevitable.’
From Monday 27 April, the number of surgical beds at Giffard Ward will be reduced from 30 to 20 so that the nurses available can cope and to ensure patient safety.
There will be no delays for emergencies or immediate life-threatening illnesses, while cancer patients will be given priority, the spokesman said.
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Hope Dave Jones is reading this.
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Im confused cant recruit in this depression or lack of funding?
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I am reading it and I would like to correct a few misconceptions. The ten beds closed because two nurses left which meant they did not have enough cover both the specialist nurses who left were on 15 year licences. Also in today’ s press the issue of a Health & Safety officer was raised we turned down a licence application for this post as we believed it could be filled from on island given the information we had, we were proved right and that post has now been filled by a locally qualified person. So do not believe everything you read in the press.
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Don’t think Dave Jones is to blame here : he was on the news saying that the 2 senior nurses had already been offered 15 year licences and decided they didn’t want to stay here. Why aren’t there any local nurses who want to take the posts? Must be other reasons.
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Merlin I appreciate your understanding of the matter which is correct, they had not been offered 15 year licences, they had already been granted 15 year licences. On the question of costs, if we offered the same packages to local people perhaps we would get more locals back into out Health services. And as I have said a dozen times they don’t need licences if they reside in HSSD accommodation which is why we know that housing licences is NOT the issue despite what Dep Hadley or the editor of the press would have you believe.
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I’d be interested to know how many local nurses are out there in Guernsey who would be interested in coming back to HSSD and what flexibility they need. All we here is that that the politicians at HSSD are ‘acutely aware’ but appear to be doing very little lateral thinking.
Can hardly blame local staff getting irritated when agency staff come in temporarily on £25 an hour?
I don’t and have never accepted that this could not be sorted out with both Education, HSSD and the unions thinking of more lateral ways of bringing local nurses back or training more local staff.
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My wife is RGN trained but wouldn’t return to a job at the hospital. Non-locals get all the financial incentives and then leave, locals get the bare minimum and nothing more (a 2-tier system), and in complete contrast finance has made her feel wanted and valued and they pay exceptionally well.
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Mr Pardoe
I bet the HSSD nor the Public Service pay board haven’t a clue about how the local nursing staff feel about these incentives to non local nurses.
Neither do they care otherwise they would have addressed the problem.
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My niece is a nurse and says that the differences have been aired. Apparently the answer from the pay bods is that the non-local staff have to have more money thrown at them in order to entice them here as they couldn’t afford to live in the local market otherwise! The other reason is the politicians consider that there is no need to entice locals to stay as they have no where else to go! Hello, wake up and smell the coffee! Local nurses have to find somewhere to live and cannot live in board of health accommodation. My niece is seriously considering working elsewhere i.e. GP practice where they get paid better and have health insurance and benefits – and a lot have already apparently left to work in the finance sector. Be interesting to know if the managers as the board of health have any figures on movements.
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