In the latest defeat of a major backbench amendment to the Government Plan, Members voted 25 to 19 against Deputy Geoff Southern’s call to help some of the most vulnerable Islanders.
The amendment, if approved, would have required £900,000 in funding.
The proposal was among several amendments to have been knocked back by the Assembly, with moves to increase child benefits, raise stamp duty on houses costing more than £1 million and reintroduce a loan deposit scheme to support first-time buyers also being blocked.
Members also yesterday accepted a Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel amendment to restrict a proposed increase to the Long-Term Care charge. The charge, which is currently a maximum of 1% of taxable earnings, will instead increase by 0.5% rather than being doubled. An engagement project for young Islanders whose first language is not English received support from the Assembly, while a further amendment for an inflation-level increase to the food costs bonus – which supports low income Islanders with the cost of GST on food – was also accepted.
Deputy Southern (pictured right) said that his amendment was an opportunity for the States to ‘show it cares’.
‘It is time to act and to a certain extent the Council of Ministers is in agreement with me,’ he said.
‘They say they support the overall aim of reducing the cost of primary care to well-targeted groups. I believe that my proposition that commits to reduced fees for certain groups needs to be delivered today.’
Several Members supported the move, saying they had spoken to parishioners who were struggling to meet GP costs.
In response, Health Minister Richard Renouf said that work was already being carried out to improve primary care and Deputy Southern’s proposals were not necessary.
‘The Council of Ministers fully supports the intent and it does, at face value, address ministers’ commitments in the Common Strategic Policy and the Government Plan,’ he said.
‘But we have seen false starts in the past. Changes have been made and are being made. We are already delivering changes in primary care, such as free cervical screening, diabetic care and the listening lounge.
‘While I agree with what he is trying to do, he is trying to succeed in the wrong fashion and too quickly. There is a lot of work to be done to make sure primary care improves in an sustainable fashion.’
He added that the proposal would leach money from the Health Insurance Fund.
Senator Ian Gorst said modernising the Island’s health care system was taking ‘far far too long’, but added that voting for Deputy Southern’s amendment would not force GPs, which are private practices in Jersey, to lower their fees.
He said: ‘Some GP practices in the past, where funding has been increased for them, have not reduced the co-payment they ask the person having the consultation to make.
‘Islanders will turn up to their GP practice thinking its going to cost them less, but there is no mechanism to actually reduce that cost in this amendment.’
He labelled the policy an example of ‘reformanomics’, in reference to the local political party, saying it was a proposal to ‘spend money’ today before relying on ‘someone else to pay later’.
