A chance to review healthcare

And when asked what attracts people to working and living in this beautiful Island, a great many will say that the standard of health care is of major importance. Indeed, many of those who arrive on these shores from the UK praise the Island’s healthcare facilities, especially when comparing them to those of the National Health Service.

It was therefore worrying to hear views expressed by Dr Iona Heath, the president of the Royal College of General Practitioners, during her recent visit. Her concerns about our general practitioner service and the way in which it is financed may have been aired previously, but it is significant that they were repeated by such a prominent member of the medical profession.

Paying to see a doctor may be seen as a good thing by some people. It encourages only genuine cases to attend a surgery, minimising queues and waiting times. However, we have been told that our ‘pay-per-visit’ system is putting extra strain on our Accident and Emergency department and worsening health inequalities as poorer people choose not to see a doctor because of the cost.

Schemes exist to take into account an individual’s circumstances when it comes to meeting the cost of visits to the doctor, which can be as much as £40 a consultation, but as families grow, the costs of seeking front-line medical help rapidly soars for the majority of ordinary Islanders who are neither receiving benefits nor on high incomes.

But GPs, too, may be suffering under the current set up. As Dr Heath explained, they have no pension guarantee or job security because they operate outside of the public sector. Some have already said that, from their point of view, the time has come to overhaul the system.

Dr Heath’s visit – coupled with GPs’ willingness to countenance reform – should be seen as an opportunity. We have a newly formed States Assembly, including a new Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny panel, which could see this as a chance to question long-standing assumptions about a core service. We also have the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authority which might ask whether doctors’ fees should be regulated.

Above all, the whole GP issue should certainly be a matter of major concern to Health Minister Anne Pryke and her advisers as her department faces a year in which it must manage continuously increasing demand for services on tighter and tighter budgets.