Nurse vacancies row breaks out in States

Thursday 04 May 2017

Jersey's Health Minister and his officers have been accused of giving "misleading information" over the number of nurse vacancies in the Island.

The accusation comes after Senator Andrew Green gave figures in the States Assembly this week that appear to differ from those that were given earlier this year during to a States scrutiny panel.

During this week's States Assembly, Deputy Geoff Southern asked Senator Green to "provide the latest quarterly figures for vacancy rates amongst qualified nurses in hospital services." The figures he gave showed a 12.2% vacancy rate for 2017, which Deputy Southern describes as the truth coming out.

Deputy Southern subsequently commented: "The Minister for Health and his officers were yesterday caught out giving misleading information to scrutiny on the sensitive subject of nursing vacancies. Exceeding a 5% vacancy rate is widely held to be a marker of trouble in nurse recruitment by management and staff alike."

The basis for his accusation is an exchange that took place during a meeting of the Health Scrutiny Panel in February when the Chief Nurse said there were currently 38 registered nurse vacancies, "..a fairly manageable percentage that is around about 5 percent of our registered nurse workforce”. When asked to clarify, the Chief Nurse said "I think possibly it sits just under the mid or 5.5, rather than over."

Deputy Southern says: "The vacancy rate, far from reducing or remaining stable, has increased to over 12%. It has been above critical for the past 4 years. When asked to account for this error, the minister stated that '...the figures were given in good faith and believed to be true at the time.'"

"I find the minister’s statement incredible. The whole basis of the relationship between scrutiny and ministers is undermined by the false use of information. How can members of States and the public have faith in their ministers, as they try to deny or cover up difficult facts? The time has come to try a novel approach in politics – Just tell us the truth, minister."

 Express has asked the Health Minister for comment.