Health needs £8m. more just to maintain services
Thursday 25th June 2009, 2:30PM BST.
PATIENTS could be charged for some services as Health faces an estimated £8m. budget shortfall, it was revealed yesterday.
That amount would merely maintain current levels next year. No significant improvements could be introduced without charging.
Previous reports that had looked into the option of patients paying for pathology, radiology or accident and emergency services could now be dusted off and re-examined.
Health minister Hunter Adam (pictured) announced the bombshell during question time at yesterday’s States meeting. He was being quizzed about whether the department should do more to maximise income from private patients.
At lunchtime he told the Guernsey Press that the indication from Treasury was that it would recommend his department got around £100m. in total to spend next year to cover items such as staff costs and routine capital.
One major factor in the shortfall was that the department had used about £2.3m. left over from previous years in its budget this year.
‘Every director is looking at their services and what, if any, cuts could be made, cost efficiencies made and unfortunately there will be no significant service developments over the next year,’ said Deputy Adam.
Health had around £1.4m.-worth of service developments that it was prioritising, including colorectal screening and extending breast cancer screening to 45-year-olds.
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
I agree with Deputy Adams financial assessment and the potential requirment for extra charging to improve services over future years. This is inevitable when an island attempts to provide an A1 healthcare service with a limited population taxation base . The current level of healthcare and service provided by PEH is excellent and the waiting times very short. There are other areas within healthcare which need attention, (mental health comes to mind). But we who live on Guernsey and have experienced the NHS or other public healthcare services around the world have to face the facts. Healthcare costs money and usually alot of it. Every new venture in healthcare takes equipment, time and staff. There is a misconception that staff suck all the funds from healthcare. Without them, we wouldn’t have it so it is a cost we need to bear. Recent reports indicate we are liklety to lose healthcare staff as costs of living and housing increase. This will put pressure onto the healthcare budget to respond, but respond they will have to or else the current level of healthcare will deminish and then Guernsey will face larger expenses sending patients away. How much does the Medical Specialist Group cost us by the way? There always seems to be a focus on cost cutting in PEH and its services.
Report abuse
Once again we find ourselves under financial pressure trying to maintain basic services for the people of Guernsey.
There used to be a time, before Zero 10, when we could easily afford to finance those services from income derived from our thriving finance industry (and beleive it or not it is still very profitable).
Now our government is looking for ever more ingeneous ways of indirectly taxing the local population to cover these shortfalls. The net effect is that we are being asked to subsidise the finance industry.
The answer to the healthcare deficit and all our other expenditure woes surely lies in reinstating a low level tax on the finance industry.
The likes of Lyndon Trott will argue that we cannot do this because we will not be competitive with the like of the Isle of Man. What he either does not realise – or chooses not to tell us – is that the Isle of Man still imposes various taxes on finance industry clients where we do not. For example – a non-resident member of an Isle of Man based pension scheme will pay 18% tax to the IOM government when they receive their pension payments. Guernsey charges nothing.
I have said this so many times it is probably boring the pants off readers – but please please please can we look at clever ways of extracting more money from those non-locals who benefit hugely from our benign tax environment.
Report abuse
We already pay for GP’s and Casualty – we don’t need to pay for xrays etc as well. What on earth is the MSG there for? We will end up like the bad old days when only the rich could afford healthcare and the rest just got into debt. We, the taxpayers, paid for the CT and MRI scanner anyway – what else do they want. Perhaps we should have a ‘PEH’ lottery like the hospice lottery.
No doubt there are some cuts that could be made but the major cost is no doubt staffing and they seem to be throwing money to get staff to come here for a year or 2 and letting local nurses leave (I know a couple who are really fed up with working conditions and thinking of going to the private sector). They need to think about putting some money into training more local staff and then keeping them. Giving £5000 bonuses to entice nurses to stay here for 2 years is madness while giving the locals nothing extra (apparently that is happening).
Report abuse
Merlin
MSG is a business that provides medical services. It’s in the business to make money from providing medical services, whilst the HSSD is in the business of providing medical services.
Report abuse
Oh Mr Adam falls into the old trap of ‘cuts’ and ‘reductions’.
When will people ever learn that Value For Money is what matters.
The reason the health service is in this pickles is because they do not provide value for money. Simple really. Economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Quite different from cuts.
Good luck.
Be interesting to know where the £2.3m overspend came from?
Report abuse
If HSSD would like to save several million pounds, they could look at reducing the money spent on locums and off-island care.
You may not know it, but million upon million of your money as taxpayers is being spent on this. There are many posts (including in mental health) that HSSD haven’t been able to recruit to, and so these posts are temporarily filled with locums that cost far more. When I say temporarily, some locums have been employed for more than a year. HSSD (i.e. all of us, because we’re funding HSSD) also spend money sending people off island for treatment or care because we can’t recruit people locally to provide it.
This is a real double whammy, because when we spend money locally, it gets recycled through the local economy and benefits everyone. When we spend it in England, it is a dead loss to us.
Perhaps you saw the article in the press on the desperate lack of foster carers in Guernsey? Care to guess how much this is costing in money, let alone the disruption to children’s lives if they are sent off to the UK for care?
If we want to plug the HSSD black hole, we can’t just throw money at it. We have to sort out why we can’t get people to fill all those empty posts.
Report abuse
Probably because people who are locums are paid more than those who take a contract?? Take agency nurses; locum doctors etc. The wage bill is probably horrendous and as stated above the money is going to the UK in the main.
Off island placements are more difficult. Some services cannot be provided locally i.e. heart surgery, so we have to be sent to Uk centres of excellence. On the other hand the acute mental health services are in a mess if we are to believe the media. I know of youngsters who have been sent to the Uk for mental health care (to the Priory) for sometimes up to a year. They come back – problems are still there so they get sent back! The taxpayer also has to pay for relatives to visit them in the UK. This could surely be looked at.
Report abuse
The UK NHS administration costs were until relatively recently abiout 5% of total expenditure.
Under the admin and consultant culture of new labour that percentaage has grown to nearly 20%.
I wonder how true this is concerning Guernsey and just how much has been wasted on IT at HSSD?
If it is true then there should be a few million of savings there.
Report abuse
The HSSD was run by former Deputy Peter Roffey, 14 months ago. Now it will soon need, 8 million more funding.
The Guernsey Diary with a new manager,( minas Mr Roffey)a price increase on milk and much better run, have announced, very good profits.
Interesting in light of all this, that he has now become the new expert on States expenditure.
Will he if he stands, at the next election be are CM?
Report abuse
The new IT system at HSSD is a complete mess according to my friends who stlll work there – and it was certainly well behind schedule when i worked there. It was originally going to be one system connecting all the departments, including MSG and GP’s and getting rid of the majority of the paperwork which sounded like a great idea. Now that isn’t working and it is going to be lots of different systems supposedly being able to connect to each other! Nothing seems to be happening fast though and it is leaching money. It is years behind schedule.
Who is in charge of IT for the States? They need to answer for this and no doubt other systems in other departments.
The NHS still does not have a sensible IT system and they have spent billions of pounds. I wonder how much the States is spending on useless IT systems? IT is moving and changing so quickly that by the time the system is in place it will be out of date!
Report abuse
Molly
This seems an ideal fact finding point to put at question time at the next States meeting or are they all too much in each others pockets to ask awkward questions ?
Report abuse
They will probably be spouting the same story that I.T. is the future and will cure all! They have probably spent too much money now to drop out although that is probably what they should do.
There are lots of highly paid staff working on the new system and yet little movement and the one department that has it – the chemist area – is in a heck of a mess according to my friends. They are always running out of stock etc and the computer system is complicated and not making life easier. If it is a sign of what is to come in other areas then perhaps a politician should be asking the questions but no doubt will be given answers to placate them. There will always be some problems to start with but this system seems very complicated and the GP surgeries are not now involved at all. We all have our own systems!
Ask the staff: admin staff, doctors, nurses, etc – they might give a completely different answer.
Report abuse