NHS Shetland staff to be offered classes in dealing with the public

Classes in dealing with the public are to be given to employees of NHS Shetland in an effort to improve staff and patient relationships.

The move, announced by director of clinical services Simon Bokor-Ingram at a board meeting of NHS Shetland on Tuesday, follows a number of complaints against the NHS in which staff attitude was the most common problem.

Mr Bokor-Ingram said that the majority of complaints about staff attitude were upheld because they centred on the patient’s perception.

A training programme has now been identified to address this, he said, and this would be delivered as part of staff development.

The health board received 17 complaints in the first six months of this year. Nine were against hospital services, six about community services, two against both and one about other services.

As well as staff attitude, lack of communication and standard of care were common themes.

Six of the complaints were upheld and five partly upheld, with the others either not upheld or ongoing.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Ambulance Service has succeeded in recruiting six members of the public for its proposed retained ambulance service in Lerwick.

Mr Bokor-Ingram told the meeting that the six people are now to undergo training. He said that the SAS was confident the recruits could commit to training and eventually form a retained ambulance crew.

The SAS launched a plan in May to base a retained service in Brae, but this was moved to Lerwick when only one person emerged from the appeal for staff.