PREPARATIONS for a new contract for Jersey’s air ambulance service must include stronger monitoring to ensure the resilience of a lifeline service, an influential backbench politician has said.
Speaking in the aftermath of a critical report into the Island’s transport infrastructure, Deputy Inna Gardiner, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, highlighted “worrying themes” that dated back to the Covid pandemic and had to be addressed.
The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General found that “critical national infrastructure” was not adequately defined, increasing the risk of an inconsistent response to how transport links were prioritised by different areas of government.
Speaking to the JEP, Deputy Gardiner said she was concerned about “patchy” resilience and a lack of monitoring.
With a new contract for the service currently being discussed and due to come into effect in June 2026, Deputy Gardiner said it was essential that more robust arrangements were built into the contract in order to assess performance.
“The new contract is a good opportunity to redraw and assess risks – it’s essential to have proper monitoring and governance in place,” she said. “Demand for the air ambulance service has risen and patients have acute needs – it’s literally a matter of life or death in some cases.”
Key deliverables for the air ambulance service highlighted in the comptroller’s report included meeting clinical and operational requirements, maximising opportunities and benefits through collaboration with the States of Guernsey and allowing capacity in the service to meet expected changes in demand levels and future healthcare trends, as well as having key performance indicators that were fit for purpose and had built-in penalty clauses.
Areas such as the air ambulance, plane links taking Islanders to medical appointments in the UK and ferries which brought food, fuel and medicine to Jersey were not luxuries, Deputy Gardiner insisted, but genuine lifeline services.
The St Helier North representative said that the performance of Blue Islands was another concern.
“The airline has only five aircraft and around £7million [of its government loan made during the pandemic] outstanding – this is taxpayers’ money and there must be more rigid monitoring of performance,” she said.
Deputy Gardiner said that she was reassured by the section of the report which outlined how Jersey’s Harbour and Airport were externally regulated and compliant with the independent audits that formed part of this process.
Many of the areas highlighted are set to be raised when the PAC questions government chief executive Andrew McLaughlin in early October. Ahead of that, the committee will hold hearings with senior government officials during September as part of a review into arms-length organisations – a report is scheduled to be published at the start of next year, Deputy Gardiner said.
