By Dominique Searle
Family Minister Jose Netto confirmed in Parliament yesterday that an investigation did take place into circumstances similar to those related by Neil Costa MP, in a question in which he described a scenario in which “the deputy manager whist drunk attempted to administer excessive doses of Ritalin (class A drug) to a child because (Mr Costa quotes a witness statement) ‘he was so drunk he could not read the drug sheet’.
Mr Netto said that this investigation resulted in the dismissal of a member of staff.
The question had related to the period between 2000 and 2002, when the Social Services Agency was run by Milbury Services.
A series of parliamentary questions, on issues that emerged publicly at the time of the truncated Joanna Hernandez Industrial Tribunal were put to the Government in Parliament by Mr Costa. However, Mr Netto, in his reply, also said that there was no incident in which service users were attacked by a carer said to be ‘high’.
And, responding to a series of related questions, Government rejected suggestions that there had ever been a “punishment room” in the Dr Giraldi Home.
Mr Netto said that there is no such room and there has never been one.
Chief Minister Peter Caruana, explaining that the information came from Social Services Agency officials, also emphasised that the words “punishment room” were being interpreted in the ordinary meaning of the English language, making clear that the denial was not based on some technical construction.
The Family Minister confirmed that the Social Services Agency investigated a complaint made by the mother of a child, in the care of Dr Giraldi Home, who had been made to stand facing the wall with quite heavy books in both hands because it was claimed that the child had misbehaved and that a senior member of staff had confirmed this was a suitable form of punishment. Mr Netto said that the investigation resulted in a member of staff being warned and reprimanded.
In his reply Mr Netto confirmed the terms of a question from Mr Costa, which said that the SSA had refused to provide details to the sister of a service user of statements given to the Police, in which it was alleged that that particular service user had been mentally and sexually abused.
Similarly he confirmed that, in the same case in 2005, when a complaint made by a user of the Dr Giraldi Home led to the police being called, the Agency also conducted its own investigation.
Meanwhile Mr Netto, answering another Opposition question, said that the Government could confirm that in 2005 an aggrieved supply worker whose supply contract at Dr Giraldi Home had been terminated “due to inappropriate behaviour, said to the then Minister that the Dr Giraldi Home was a time bomb.”
“When asked by the Minister to explain that statement of opinion the person in question was unable to substantiate it, limiting her explanation to an alleged difference in culture between Gibraltar and English carers,” said Mr Netto. He added that as a rule all complaints are investigated.
Asked to confirm that the SSA investigated an incident in which a bottle of diazepam was said to have disappeared from a locked medicine cabinet at the Dr Giraldi Home in 2005, Mr Netto said that there was an investigation but that it transpired that there was no missing bottle.
Mr Netto confirmed to Mr Bossano, who had represented Mrs Hernandez at the Tribunal, that complaints had been brought to the attention of the senior manager at the time.
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