And the government has also accounted for the ‘possibility’ of more community-based vaccination, according to Professor Peter Bradley.
He made the comments while responding to a question from Deputy Carina Alves yesterday on the £20m provision for test and trace – which also includes technology services such as the Covid-19 Alert App – as part of reserve funding in the proposed Government Plan for ‘projects where there is still a degree of cost uncertainty’.
During a Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel hearing, Professor Bradley said: ‘We are not sure how the pandemic is going to unfold over the coming months and this [£20m] would seem to be a prudent figure.’
Test-and-trace director Rachel Williams said: ‘We keep costs under review. We are constantly working to reduce our costs wherever we can do, to make sure the spend is appropriate but also targeted in the right way to continue to keep Islanders and the Island safe.’
Meanwhile, Health Minister Richard Renouf said that it was ‘difficult to predict exactly what we will need next year’ and that the allocated funds ‘are large, rounded figures to make sure that we do not run into difficulty’.
There is also funding of £4.1m for the Covid-19 vaccine programme in 2022 to support booster jabs, and £2.58m held in reserve in case further costs arise, the Scrutiny panel heard.
Deputy Alves asked how the reserve sum could be used and ‘why that is an appropriate provision’.
Professor Bradley said the Health Department was in a position where formal guidance on vaccinations had not yet been issued for next year, but that they had made ‘some reasonable assumptions’ as they continued to follow advice from the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
This included the vaccine being free of charge for Islanders and that boosters would continue to be provided ‘for people who need them, at least for the most vulnerable people on the Island to keep them safe’.
The figure also accounted for a potential ‘change in the operating model for vaccinations’ including the ‘possibility of more community-based vaccination’, he added.
‘We need to make a provision for a surge in capacity should it be required,’ said Professor Bradley.
During the hearing, concerns were raised about health-check backlogs.
The Health Minister said there was a year-long wait for breast scans, with extra clinics scheduled to deal with the large number of appointments.
‘Our plan is, by the end of next year, to return those to pre-Covid levels, because of course it is a concern in the longer term if people are not getting timely scans, and that can ultimately lead to disease which is too advanced to give any preventative care,’ he said.
