USER pays health charges will not be introduced until full details of how they will be work in practice have been produced, if States Members back an amendment to the government’s Budget proposals.
Under the ministerial plans, there would be a £55 charge for missing an outpatient appointment – with it being estimated that around 12,000 patients fail to attend each year.
Meanwhile, people who wrongly attend the Emergency Department rather than their GP will also be charged under the new proposals. This would be at the same rate as the fees charged by Jersey Doctors on Call – £77 for Islanders and £97 for non-residents.
Health Minister Tom Binet has previously said this is being introduced to prevent inappropriate use of the Emergency Department rather than being a revenue-raising measure.
However, Deputy Beatriz Porée has lodged an amendment to the Budget calling for “an extra step in the process” by requesting the minister to bring the proposals back to the Assembly once a fuller picture of how they will work is available and once Members can be “assured that the department is capable of applying them in an equitable way”.
In her amendment, she said: “As it stands, the Budget asks members to grant permission to the Health Minister to introduce a regime for charges for non-attendance at outpatient appointments and inappropriate use of the Emergency Department.
However, these new charges are not currently ready to be implemented at the start of 2026. It is proposed that they will begin during the year after other work has been done, including the introduction of a new system allowing people to change their appointments online. It is also proposed that an appeals process will be created to safeguard patients and ensure no-one is unfairly charged.”
Deputy Porée said that patients can face difficulties engaging with the health service particularly with “communication and problems arising from record keeping”.
“Whilst unjustified non-attendance at appointments ought to be discouraged, we will
want to be certain that the department has resolved issues with the communication of
appointments, to mitigate possible resentment or disputes arising,” she said.
“It would be highly unjust for patients to find themselves being charged for missing appointments that they either did not know were happening, or after they had experienced the inconvenience of making themselves available for appointments that the department had cancelled and not informed them.
“It would also risk a level of engagement with the proposed appeals process that could end up costing the department more to facilitate this than they will have gained from those charges.”
The Reform Jersey Deputy added that her amendment would prevent the Assembly from providing the Health Minister with a “blank cheque” without Members having the opportunity to properly review and scrutinise the arrangements.
The Budget is due to be debated next month.
