This Is Guernsey

By Phil Falle

A mechanical digger prepares a trench for Cable & Wireless to lay telephone cables. The sight might be a familiar one in the larger Channel Islands, but it’s virtually a tourist attraction in Sark. (Picture supplied, 0541999)

SARK has a new medical officer to replace Dr Frank Teunisse, who leaves his post at the end of May after more than three years in the island.

Dr Peter Counsell has been appointed by the Medical Committee and will move to Sark with his wife, Shannon – an experienced registered nurse – and their young son, Rhys.

Dr Counsell is currently in general practice in Bowerchalke, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, where he also assists the Wessex Locum Group and the Dorset Ambulance Service.

Committee president Roger Olsen said the new doctor was also experienced in single-handed dispensing practices – which is, essentially, the job in Sark – as well as obstetrics, paediatrics and general medicine.

Deputy Olsen said Dr Counsell would continue the arrangement of holding morning and afternoon surgeries as well as being available for accidents, emergencies and home visits.

He paid tribute to Dr Teunisse and his wife Helen, saying the healthcare given to patients had been exemplary and the couple had been valued members of the community, who would be missed.

He also thanked Sark residents Drs Stephen Henry and Roger Norwich for the assistance – alongside Dr Teunisse – they gave the committee in sifting through 25 applications for the post to identify the short-listed candidates.

Without exception, people I have spoken to will miss Frank and Helen Teunisse and many of them – including this humble scribe – remark that they have a good deal to thank him for.

In the meantime, I hope the committee finds time to address the issue that contributed to their decision to leave Sark – that of being on call 24-hours-a-day, every day, for weeks on end.

To expect someone working the sort of hours Frank Teunisse worked and be on top form, as doctors are required to be, is in my view asking too much and hopefully Deputy Olsen and his committee colleagues will be talking to Dr Counsell about this important matter once he’s got his feet under the table.

Deputy Olsen announced the appointment at last week’s historic sitting of Chief Pleas – a sitting I was unfortunately unable to attend.

From a journalist’s point of view, evening meetings of the legislature tend to be more businesslike – the fact that time seems to be limited appears to concentrate minds a little more than having the whole day in front of members.

The Barclay family – well, three of the four who own property, because one did attend – sent representatives (as the law currently permits them to), along with what seemed to be a complete draft of the proposed legislation on the constitution, but including the amendments setting out, as they saw it, changes relating to the roles of the seigneur and the seneschal, which Lord Chancellor Jack Straw has said should be in place by the end of next year.

Not surprisingly, they were unable to debate those matters because the tabling procedures – those which give notice of matters set down for debate – had not been complied with. Given the veritable battery of lawyers who apparently were in the chamber, I am surprised by that slip, if indeed it was a slip, and it will be interesting to see if an attempt is made to hold that particular debate at the Easter meeting towards the end of next month.

If that is the case and members decide, so to speak, to do today what in any case might be forced upon this small community tomorrow, then perhaps the decision to fly flags following last week’s meeting might well be adjudged to be a little premature. Either way, I hope the legislative changes necessary to have a fully elected legislature in place in time for elections at the end of the year are not impeded.

Talking of those elections, I don’t think I am the only person to view with disquiet some of the names on the current electoral roll in relation to their alleged connections with Sark. It includes people claiming to ‘live’ at a property not far from my home – a house in which, to the best of my knowledge, none of them has ever spent a night.

Meanwhile, life here goes on and this week saw a sight commonplace in the larger Channel Islands but quite rare here – digging up roads to lay cables. That particular one was for the Cable & Wireless telephone service but Sark Electricity is also carrying out a continual programme of putting power cables underground.

It might be a mite inconvenient in the short term, but in the long run, well worthwhile.

* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.