COMMENTS last week by health experts that they would not seek medical treatment in Jersey were “inflammatory, inappropriate and ought not to have been made”, a States Member has claimed.
Deputy Sir Philip Bailhache – himself a member of the Scrutiny panel that convened last week to hear Professor Simon Mackenzie, Tom Hayhoe and Professor Hugo Mascie-Taylor criticise standards in the Health Department – asked Health Minister Tom Binet: “Would the minister agree that the statements of two of the former leaders that they would not seek medical treatment in Jersey were inflammatory, inappropriate and ought not to have been made?”
Deputy Binet said: “In simple terms, I would agree wholeheartedly with that statement.”
Deputy Binet was responding during an urgent question raised by Deputy Jonathan Renouf. Deputy Renouf sought the minister’s response to the comments as they related to public safety, clinical standards and governance.
Challenged by Deputies Renouf and Inna Gardiner on the need to accept clinical guidelines and the conclusions of the recent Royal College reports, Deputy Binet said he supported that “otherwise I wouldn’t be doing my job”.
Deputy Binet said: “I am going to carry on what I am doing now and trying to set some clear goals, tell people where the health service needs to go and actually lead that forward. That’s going to require a series of meetings with people to try to make sure we bring everybody on board in a sensible co-ordinated manner and that we don’t make things worse before they get better.”
Questioned by former Health Minister Deputy Karen Wilson, Deputy Binet declined to accept that the position of the three experts was entirely in the interests of patient safety and not a personal attack on himself.
“I don’t know that I am entirely happy to support that at all,” he said. “Two of the three people –if this is in the public interest and patient safety and staff in the Hospital – made no significant mention at all of the many improvements that are currently under way.
“However well qualified they are, I think that’s unforgivable. Actually, I’ve got some other comments but I think I’ll leave it at that.”
Deputy Wilson responded by saying that the point was not to say “nice things” about the Hospital but rather to illustrate in helpful ways where it was that things could actually be improved, and she asked whether the minister accepted that some of what was said “had some merit”.
“There’s nothing very clever about saying that some of it had some merit; of course, it had some merit,” Deputy Binet replied during an often testy series of exchanges.
Concluding the 15-minute period set aside by Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, Deputy Renouf said that he had received comments from individuals after last week’s hearing who were grateful that the problem had been so clearly stated without varnish or sugar-coating.
“Part of the leadership role of the minister is surely to set the culture and to set standards. We have a culture of consultants within HCS of resistance to standards that are universally accepted elsewhere. That is why the experts spoke out,” Deputy Renouf said.
