Verita group says Jersey's hospital 'has improved'

Jersey hospital was criticised for the number of locums it employs

Suggested improvements to the running of Jersey's general hospital, made after a patient's death, have begun to be implemented, consultants have said.

Last year's report from independent consultancy firm Verita made a number of suggestions on how the hospital could be improved.

The report was prompted by the death of Elizabeth Rourke during a routine gynaecological operation in 2006.

The report authors said they were pleased with the progress made.

Mrs Rourke was a nurse at the hospital when she went in for the routine surgery.

The operation was performed by a locum, Dr Dolores Moyano, who was covering for a full-time member of staff.

The Verita report said Dr Moyano's references were ambiguous and were not suitably checked.

Verita made 29 recommendations for improvement, labelling eight of them urgent and said the implementation of them would be reviewed after six months.

One of the main concerns was over the number of locum doctors used in Jersey.

As part of the review Verita bosses said the level of locum usage had actually increased to its highest level in four years rather than decreased.

The report authors said they were pleased with the progress made and understood some suggestions were so far-reaching they would take time to implement.

Andrew McLaughlin, from Health and Social Services, said he hoped morale among staff would be improved.

He said: "I hope the general public has never lost its trust and faith in the hospital and the staff that work here.

"They are very committed to what they do and they have been recognised as providing safe and effective patient care by Verita and every other assessment that takes place of what we do here."

Dr Andrew Luksa from the General Hospital said the matter of locum doctors was being controlled.

He said: "I'm not worried, I think what is important is that locums are of a standard that can be proven.

"When they come to work for the organisation we have a system by which we can check their list of skills so we can employ them in the right capacity.

"When you are in a small hospital it is an inevitability you will lose locums because some of the departments have only two or three members in them."