Summary

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Live Reporting

  1. Call for more health staff after rise in stress cases

    BBC Radio Jersey

    A scrutiny leader wants the States to recruit more health staff to try to reduce stress among staff at Jersey General Hospital.

    New figures show staff have taken almost 1,000 more days off work because of stress, anxiety or depression this year compared to the same time last year.

    Deputy Mary Le Hegarat, who leads the Health Scrutiny Panel, said she was concerned at the figures, and said the States needed to recruit more people to help relieve the workload.

    She said: "We are all fully aware that we have had shortages within our health service and I think maybe now we really need to make sure that we haven't got any gap."

  2. Health service loses 1,000 more working days from stress

    BBC Radio Jersey

    Jersey's health service lost almost 1,000 more working days as a result of staff suffering from stress, anxiety or depression between March and August this year than during the same period in 2019.

    New figures, revealed in a BBC Jersey Freedom of Information request, also showed mental health issues were the most common reasons for a health worker to be off among those 957 sick days in the six months after the Covid pandemic began.

    While there were more working days available in total during these months this year, because more people were employed by the health service, the increase in absences for stress, anxiety or depression was proportionately greater.

    Kenny MacNeil, from the Royal College of Nursing, added that problems would not simply go away when the pandemic ended.

    We've still got to face the reality that the pandemic has caused a huge issue for mental health, and I still think we'll see that still coming in the next year. I don't think this is the end of it, I think it's the beginning."

    Kenny MacNeil, The Royal College of Nursing

    The States website says the island's Health and Safety at Work Law from 1989 "required employers to manage any significant risks which can affect the health of their employees, including the causes of work related stress".

  3. Dean asking health bosses to rethink Covid restrictions

    BBC Radio Jersey

    Jersey's Anglican Dean will ask the island's health authorities to rethink restrictions on the number of people who can attend a service.

    The Very Reverend Mike Keirle said he believed the safety precautions being made by churches should be taken into account and he was struggling to understand the reasoning behind new limits, which he said were not as consistent as they could be.

    He said he was unsure, for example, why 40 people could attend a funeral at a church, but only 20 people could go to a wedding or Sunday service in the same building.

    He added that there needed to be more clarity behind the decisions, and a better understanding of the work being done by the faith community to keep islanders safe.

    I'm struggling to see how the policy that the government has made is based on medical advice. It's clearly a financial decision and they have rightly decided to balance the economy and people's well-being. But what what we're asking for is actually a level playing field, whether the proportionality question and the balancing of risks is applied to faith communities."

    The Very Reverend Mike Keirle, Dean of Jersey