ALMOST 10,000 people attended Jersey’s Emergency Department last year with conditions that could have been treated by a GP or other community healthcare service, according to new data.
The figures, published by the Health Department in response to a freedom-of-information request, show that 9,654 Emergency Department attendances in 2025 were categorised as “Primary Care”. This means that hospital staff considered the patient’s condition could have been managed by a GP or another non-emergency health service.
In January 2025 alone, 1,248 patients – representing 34.44% of all Emergency Department attendances that month – fell into that category.
The number of attendances recorded as primary care cases remained above 1,000 cases every month in 2025 until July before dropping sharply.
August recorded 604 primary care attendances (15.23%), falling to 290 (7.71%) in September and 155 (4.21%) in October.
The figures then rose slightly to 263 (7.86%) in November and 358 (10.79%) in December.
The response also warned that the figures are likely to underestimate the true number because “the category field is not mandatory and is not consistently populated”.
Plans to charge patients for using Jersey’s for using the Emergency Department for non-urgent treatment were proposed at the end of last year by then-Health Minister Tom Binet as part of the government’s 2026-2029 Budget.
He suggested introducing fees of £77 for islanders and £97 for non-residents who went to the General Hospital when they could use a GP or a pharmacist instead.
But a successful amendment by the Health and Social Scrutiny Panel asked for more details and an implementation plan to be presented to the States Assembly for final approval before charges were introduced.
The new freedom-of-information request also sought to establish how many people were redirected from Emergency Department triage during 2025 to services such as the Jersey Doctors on Call service or GPs, or were required to pay because their condition was not considered an accident or emergency.
Health and Care Jersey said it could not provide those figures because “there is no ability within the Emergency Department dataset to capture where a patient was redirected at triage rather than receiving care through Emergency Department”.
“It is not possible to identify data on the number of people redirected or turned away from the Emergency Department at the point of triage during 2025,” the response stated.
The response revealed that no patients had been charged for treatment received in the Emergency Department before changes to Jersey’s Eligibility to Funded Healthcare policy came into force on 13 April 2026.
The changes introduced charges for emergency healthcare services for visitors from countries which do not have a reciprocal health agreement with Jersey.
The new policy also meant that employees on a work permit in Jersey would be able to access free follow-up care after an emergency during their first six months in the Island.
The response did not confirm how many people have been charged for Emergency Department care since this policy change.
