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WQ.269/2022
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY R.J. WARD OF ST. HELIER CENTRAL
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 7th NOVEMBER 2022
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2022
Question
“Further to her response to Written Question 247/2022 will the Minister advise –
- the planned date for delivering outcomes of the review detailed therein and discussed at a meeting with the Minister on 5th August 2022;
- the projected date for any changes to the existing policy; and
- whether cancer patients undergoing surgery will be included in the group defined as “Cancer patients for Planning Day and radiotherapy/chemotherapy treatment only”?”
Answer
- It is expected that internal review of the current policy will be completed by 1 December 2022. As stated in the Minister’s response tabled on Monday 31 October, policy changes would:
“…incur a cost to the taxpayer and, as such, would require a proposal in the next Government Plan once the relevant data has been collected and business case prepared before it is then considered by the Minister, Council of Ministers, the Health and Social Services Scrutiny Panel, and the States Assembly as part of the Government Plan process.”
Therefore, any outcome can only be delivered once a detailed proposal has been considered and approved by the States Assembly.
- The projected date for any changes to the existing policy will be dependent on the financial approvals required as outlined in (a) above.
However, as part of the meeting on 5 August 2022, the Minister agreed an immediate change to policy to allow the Travel Office to consider requests for a travel companion that fall outside the existing policy. It is recognised that amendments need to be made to the relevant page on gov.je to reflect said change and it is expected that these will be completed shortly.
- Under the current policy, free of charge travel for non-clinical escorts for the time of actual surgery is not included, however this is being discussed and may possibly change in line with the review discussed in (a). Patients who have protracted periods of care off island, are already supported by the provision of escort travel.