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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 5th JULY 2011
Question
Will the Minister provide a detailed breakdown of the £37m of savings in the cost of delivering Health by 2040, projected by option 3 in her consultation Green Paper, to include which services will be affected; what savings will be delivered by each, and how those savings will be delivered?
In particular will she state what current services, if any, will be subject to charges, including means testing, and whether any services are to cease, or to cease being delivered on-Island?
Answer
The Green Paper outlines 3 different scenarios and projects what each scenario will cost, in terms of total health and social care expenditure by 2040. £37 million is the projected difference in cost between Scenario 1 and Scenario 3. It is not a saving, it is the estimated difference in expenditure that could result if there were to be significant changes to our existing models of health and social care provision, staff roles and organisational structures.
The Green paper clearly outlines the demographic changes which will result in increased demand for services and increased costs. It identifies how by changing the way we work we can meet increasing demand and deliver safe, sustainable care which is more affordable than our current model (as described in Scenario 1). Increased affordability (as described in Scenario 3) will be delivered through:
- greater integration between all services and improved team-working, including joint working between GPs, hospital consultants and specialist UK centres;
- the use of new technology and new ways of working to care for more people in their own homes, rather than in hospitals or care homes;
- an associated reduction, although not the removal, of the requirement for capital and other investment in the hospital and other forms of institutional care.
Scenario 3 will allow us to provide better care, to more people, at a lower cost than Scenario 1. It will achieve this, not by ceasing to deliver services but by delivering them in different, more appropriate settings. For example the community pharmacy, the GP's surgery or, if required, the UK centres that have specialist resources and expertise available to them. This will, in turn, help contain our Islands increasing health care costs.
At this present time there are no proposals to introduce new charges, or means test more services, other than those potentially identified for CSR 2011-2013.