Willie Coffey, a member of the Scottish Parliament, has called for Jersey’s Social Security Department to reconsider their decision not to fund the ongoing health care costs of multiple sclerosis patient Steve Quinn should he be transferred to a care home in Scotland.
Mr Quinn (57), who was born in Jersey, has been in the Jersey Cheshire Home for five years but wants to move to a home in Ayrshire to be near the majority of his family. But the Social Security Department have refused to fund his ongoing care should he move, with Scottish local authorities also refusing to do so.
Ayrshire MSP Mr Coffey recently wrote to Deputy John Le Fondré, whom he knows through his work on the British-Irish Council, and the Social Security Department to appeal for Jersey to meet the costs in Scotland.
He argued that in the UK care costs are paid by the patient’s local authority wherever they choose to move, and he urged the Island to do the same.
The family are particularly disappointed because the costs are likely to be lower in Scotland than in Jersey.
In an email responding to Mr Coffey, Matt Berry, a States legal adviser to the Social Security Department, said that the department ‘was not prepared to fund him on an indefinite basis in Scotland’.
Mr Berry said: ‘Jersey is not a UK local authority and so the laws and agreements that are in place as regards local authorities in the UK to ensure that care costs are distributed fairly between those authorities are irrelevant to the question of who should pay for Mr Quinn’s continuing care.’
Mr Coffey was also told that the Social Security Department had advised Mr Quinn, who has worked and paid social security contributions in Jersey, that ‘he or his family should seek their own independent advice as to his eligibility for assistance under Scottish health and social care legislation’.
In response to the letter, Mr Coffey said: ‘I am extremely disappointed with this. Jersey is refusing to do what most, if not all, other authorities do in providing care support for their own citizens, no matter where they choose to live.
‘This is adding more pain and suffering to the family that is entirely unnecessary.
‘Jersey should honour its obligations to one of its citizens at his time of greatest need in his life. There should be no dispute about an issue like this.
‘If a terminally ill man chooses to be nearer his family, to help them be close to him, why would Jersey want to exploit this to save a few pounds?
‘Mr Quinn has probably paid for his care over and over again during his working life. I would appeal again to Jersey to reconsider this.’
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a condition of the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), which controls the body’s actions and activities, such as movement and balance.
- Each nerve fibre in the central nervous system is surrounded by a substance called myelin. Myelin helps the messages from the brain travel quickly and smoothly to the rest of the body. In MS, the myelin becomes damaged, disrupting the transfer of these messages.
- MS is unpredictable. Symptoms can occur randomly. Some of the most common are problems with mobility and balance, pain, fatigue and muscle spasms.
- It is possible for MS to occur at any age, but people are most commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40.
- Women are two to three times as likely to develop MS as men.
- The exact cause of MS is not fully understood, although there is some evidence to suggest that it is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
- MS is a life-long condition and as yet there is no cure, but there are many treatments, which aim to improve the symptoms and make them easier to live with.
- Islanders with the condition can join the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Jersey, more information about which can be found here
Paul Keohone, Steve’s brother, says this on the petition:
This is my brother Steve. Steve suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, and as a result of having this disease also has epilepsy and MRSA. Steve currently lives in Jersey, in a nursing home where he has been for 5 years, but has decided that he wants to come home to Scotland, so that he can be with his family.
Ria Wolstenholme
Everybody deserves to be with their family through difficult times
Stephen Whitelaw
It’s the right thing to do.
Get Steve Home with his family, a life should not come down to Money!!!!!
Lindsay-Anne Purdon
He should be with his family
Maxine McInnes
Steven should be with his family
Maryanne Ahrens
Steven is my cousin and I would like to see him home,with his family.
Janice Buchanan
it is the right thing to do
Bruce Alexander
Let the guy home, he’s suffered so much already. Doesn’t reflect well on either set of social services.
Douglas Norris
This is a family I know well who miss and need their brother home and so on compassionate grounds I appeal to the people and decision makers of Jersey, please, help make this happen.
Sandra Mackay
I totally support this campaign – Steve should be near his family if that is his choice and Jersey should continue to fund this for as long as is required.
Fin McElhinney
How we look after individuals who are in real and substantial need is a fundamental test of our civilisation, our social values and our sense of community. Would anyone want to be isolated and remote from their family who love and miss him so much?
Linda Boyd
Families should be together especially if they have an illness precious times
Jordan Warner
This man should be with family. Jersey should take responsibility for the wellbeing of its residents & these are pretty extenuating circumstances. Plus jersey isn’t as financially stretched as England right now.
April Roberts
FEW stories prompt such a unified response as Saturday’s front-page article about Steve Quinn, a man seriously ill with multiple sclerosis who wants to go home to be with his family in Scotland.
Mr Quinn’s daughter Lauren says she has been told that Jersey would not fund his care for more than a year if he went back, even though she says that it would be cheaper than paying for him to be at Jersey Cheshire Home, where he lives now.
Scotland, it seems, says that it is Jersey which should pay for his treatment.
Hundreds have signed a petition calling on the authorities here and in Ayrshire to break the impasse and many have made their view known by commenting on the JEP’s Facebook page and at jerseyeveningpost.com.
So far, however, no one has budged.
Here in Jersey, the Social Security Department has said very little, insisting that it cannot comment on individual cases.
The silence is only making the calls for an explanation grow louder.
An apparent inability to do what many think is the right thing for Mr Quinn – and, if the claims about cost are correct, the taxpayer – is looking more and more like an affront to common sense.
Is this sorry saga simply a case of officials here or in Scotland not having a form with the right boxes to tick?
It is about time we were given some answers.
