The Gibraltar Health Authority (GHA) and the Minister for Health today launched a formal constitution for the GHA. The constitution sets out the GHA’s principles and values, its pledges to the community and the rights and obligations of patients. The GHA describes the constitution as “Our commitment to your health, care and wellbeing.”

The core of the constitution is to ensure a comprehensive, high quality, safe, fair and compassionate service to patients.

Pledges in the constitution include treating patients with a professional standard of care by appropriately qualified and experienced staff and in an approved setting that meets required levels of safety and quality. Further, the constitution pledges to constantly strive to provide world-class standards of healthcare. These pledges are supported by the GHA’s values: Working Together, Excellence, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Equality, collectively, WE CARE.

The rights of the community are set out in the constitution and include rights to confidentiality, access, participation and safety.

The Constitution also explains the obligations of the community. This includes taking responsibility for family’s good health, such as taking part in vaccination programmes, following recommended course of treatment, registering with a GP, keeping appointments and treating GHA staff with respect.

Feedback is also strongly encouraged by the constitution, both positive and negative. The GHA cannot expect to grow in excellence, compassion, accountability, respect and equality (WE CARE), unless it actively seeks to learn from patients’ experiences.

Medical Director, Dr Daniel Cassaglia said “The GHA is delighted to be part of today’s launch. This constitution clearly lays out the high quality and caring health service we are committed to providing. We see this as a partnership with the public, and by working together we can do more to sustain public health and wellbeing, whilst also providing the best possible service for those who need us.”

On launching the Constitution, the Minister for Health, Care and Justice, the Hon. Neil F. Costa MP said: “Whilst there have been some important improvements at the GHA, there continues to be a lot of meaningful work to complete. It is fair to say that staffing levels have substantially increased, patients generally enjoy shorter waiting times for most surgery services and many services have been brought back to Gibraltar from the UK and Spain. A new Primary Care Centre and a new Children’s Primary Care Centre are being built on the grounds outside St Bernard’s Hospital, and we are committed to strengthen all services further. The Constitution is the framework for all of our aspirations, values, principles and obligations, under which auspices we can benchmark the quality of our existing and new services. It continues to be an immense privilege to work with such talented and committed professionals like those working at the GHA.  I am proud, along with my top team to launch this Constitution and to enshrine these vital principles, values and rights for the benefit of the people of Gibraltar.”