THE Health Minister has admitted that there is no timetable and no expected savings underpinning controversial proposals to charge some Islanders for medical travel, emergency treatment, and extended hospital stays.
It comes after the JEP revealed on Monday that the Health Department is considering a significant tightening of rules governing access to publicly funded healthcare benefits.
The report outlining the changes warned: “Healthcare costs are rising and Health and Care Jersey must ensure that finite public funding is used fairly and directed to the Islanders who need care.”
During yesterday’s States sitting, Health Minister Tom Binet was quizzed over the plans – which include reintroducing income-testing for UK medical travel and imposing daily fees on “discharge-ready” patients who remain in hospital.
Pressed repeatedly on when the measures might come into force, the minister replied: “I don’t have a set timetable for these things. It’s part of an awful lot of other work that’s going on.”
He also admitted that no modelling has been carried out on the potential financial impact on families.
And when challenged over the central justification for the reforms – easing mounting cost pressures in the Health Department – Deputy Binet acknowledged that no cost-benefit analysis had been completed.
“No, we haven’t carried out a cost benefit analysis,” he said, arguing that formal analysis “takes time and money” and defending the approach as “common sense”.
“Sometimes you just get on with things that you know are the right things to do,” he said, citing the example of proposed charges for patients deemed medically fit for discharge but remaining in hospital beds.
“This is a charge that is being introduced to to to try and bring about some behavioural change so that people don’t spend a month in hospital waiting to get the right care home when other people are waiting for operations,” added Deputy Binet.
Under the draft policy, such patients would have a five-day grace period before daily charges – running into hundreds of pounds – are applied.
Deputy Jonathan Renouf warned that Islanders with long-term health conditions could face significant new costs for repeat UK trips, and questioned how much money the changes were expected to save. No figure was provided.
The Health Minister, who said he was “a little surprised” the matter had been accepted as an urgent question, insisted he was acting in the public interest.
“It would have been the easiest thing in the world to avoid this because there’s an election coming up but, as far as I’m concerned, we need to be more honest with the public and that’s what I’m trying to do,” said Deputy Binet.
“I’m trying to confront the real problems that we’ve got and do that in spite of the election. And if I’m to be criticised for that so, well, too bad.”
He confirmed that the proposals are due to be discussed with the Health Advisory Board this week.
“These policies have been under consideration for some time,” the minister said.
“We’ve now got them into a written form and they’re tabled for discussion with the advisory board on Thursday, because I wanted to take the opportunity to air these ideas and get the feedback and opinions from the board.”
Asked whether there would be a public consultation, Deputy Binet said this may be something that the board would advise him to undertake.
“We’re spinning an awful lot of plates in health at the moment and this isn’t the only thing that I’m dealing with, so I’m sorry if I’m not giving it quite enough attention,” he added.
