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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY M.R. HIGGINS OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 16th JUNE 2009
Question
Following allegations by a retired civil servant that successive Health Ministers and Chief Officers of Health have deliberately manipulated the figures in returns to the United Kingdom regarding the cost of services provided in Jersey under the Reciprocal Health Agreement, would the Minister advise the Assembly whether the allegations are correct; and, if so, identify the persons responsible for providing misleading information to the United Kingdom?
Answer
Due to the thirty three year time period involved it is extremely difficult to give precise, unequivocal and comprehensive comment about every single conversation, meeting or arrangement that may have occurred during the period of 1976 to 2009.
I can confirm though that my Department is committed to ensuring maximum benefit for our island residents at value for money in regard to their receipt of health care services in the UK.
Importantly I can also confirm that all financial allocations over this thirty three year time period associated with the Reciprocal Health Agreement have been undertaken in partnership with the UK DoH and agreed by the appropriate DoH representatives or civil servants. Opportunity was available and occasionally taken to question each jurisdiction's respective figures and until 2008 there is no record of the arrangements between Jersey and the UK DoH being in doubt or deemed unacceptable to the UK.
On the basis of there not being a recorded unresolved dispute I can only assume that the UK was satisfied with the information provided. Further evidence to support this is that funds would not have been made available to Jersey if the UK DoH were dissatisfied with the level of information provided or if due diligence and appropriate checks had not been undertaken.
Accordingly, until the Channel Islands were given notice by the UK DoH, the financial transactions between the jurisdictions were always dealt with in a mutually satisfactory way and this can be demonstrated by a specific UK DoH Allocation Working Paper (AWP) which is an official document produced by the UK DoH to confirm financial allocations.