THE Health Minister has been urged to reconsider the “generous” travel packages offered to patients sent to the UK as his department faces continued pressure to cut costs.
The Health Department spent £19 million on off-Island care last year – down from £25 million in 2024, the Health and Care Jersey Advisory Board heard on Thursday.
The figure includes flights, medical evacuations, treatment at UK hospitals and accommodation.
Commercial and private patients lead Philip Housden said that around 60% of off-Island services relate to cardiac and cancer care, while paediatrics also accounts for a “significant” proportion.
Board chair Carolyn Downs questioned whether further savings could be made from the travel support provided to patients.
She said that travel costs were “quite generous”, adding: “I’m wondering if we are actually going to do anything about that.”
Chief officer Tom Walker said the policy governing travel packages was controlled by Health Minister Tom Binet, who was in the audience at the board meeting yesterday.
The board agreed that the issue should be raised with the minister again, with Ms Downs adding: “Given our financial position, we really do need to think about it, don’t we?”
The department is also planning to reduce the number of UK partners it works with and review several of its existing agreements. These include contracts with providers in Southampton which are due for renewal at the end of the year.
Head of access Emily Hoban explained: “We’re currently looking at a tender process through our procurement team to look at alternative providers for that quite costly service that we’re currently spending.
“There’s a whole array of taxi costs and train travel costs that we’re also reviewing. What we can’t do at the moment is negotiate payable rates for our flight costs, but that’s something I know that we would want to look at in the future.”
Negotiations are also under way with the department’s accommodation provider in Southampton, including over additional charges such as cleaning costs.
It comes after the Health Minister revealed that he would not be pursuing plans to charge some Islanders for off-island medical travel and accommodation – due to the “amount of angst” the proposals caused compared to the “relatively small amount of money” that would be saved.
The controversial plans – which would have seen the richest 30% of Jersey patients required to contribute towards or fully pay for travel and accommodation costs when referred to the UK for treatment – were first revealed by the JEP in February.
But one month later, then-Deputy Binet confirmed he was not continuing with the proposals to reintroduce income testing for patients referred to the UK for treatment.
He said: “We’ve considered the medical travel issue and, given the amount of angst that it’s caused, and the relatively small amount of money [that would be saved], we’re not going to take any further action on that.”
The minister previously revealed that the proposals were expected to save around £265,000 a year.
