The new contract sees just over 100 GPs centrally contracted by the government, with fees subsidised to around half of previous levels.
Consultations will be priced at £20, with discounts for children aged five to 17 (£10) and under-fives (free). Home visits will be charged at £40.
Home visits by the Covid-19 response team, and all end-of-life care, will be free under the four-month agreement, along with referral letters, prescription collection/delivery, repeat prescriptions, childhood immunisations and smear tests.
Some GPs will staff the new urgent treatment centre at the General Hospital, which opened this week.
The UTC will deal with minor incidents that would have been seen at the Emergency Department such as sprains, lacerations and abrasions. There will be no charge for attendances considered to be emergencies, but fees will be payable for those incidents that should have been dealt with at a GP surgery.
All patients attending the UTC will be screened on arrival in an outside tent at the Hospital’s Gwyneth Huelin entrance, with separate ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ areas inside to ensure those with coronavirus symptoms do not mix with other patients.
The new contractual arrangement, finalised immediately prior to Easter after several weeks’ negotiation, was described as a ‘landmark agreement’ by Health Minister Richard Renouf.
There are around 106 GPs working in 13 GP practices (some with branch surgeries) in Jersey. All operate as independent businesses, and GPs are not currently paid a salary by the government to see patients.
Islanders wanting to make an appointment with a GP will need to call their surgery and cannot turn simply up. They will then be offered telephone, video or face-to-face consultations, or a home visit, depending on their need, as determined by the GP.
The UTC is open from 8am to 10pm every day. Outside of these hours, the GP out-of-hours service will continue as normal (Tel: 445445), while the Emergency Department continues to see emergencies as usual.
