re Fund primary care transformation

23

WQ.86/2020

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2020

Question

Further to statements made at a public hearing with the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel on 13th February 2020, will the Minister –

1. explain the intention to double run' the Health Insurance Fund as a means of funding primary care transformation in the short term and state whether this specific piece of work will be financed from within the Our Hospital' estimates; and
2. explain why such expenditure on service transformation was not included in the Government Plan but is being sought as an allocation of additional funding early this year?

Answer

1. Double running refers to a period of transition where we are moving services and activity out of the hospital into the community, but when we are still required to maintain staffing levels for the existing hospital-based services during the period of transition. As such, for a period, we will be required to run two parallel services i.e. "double running". The double running for primary care transformation can be from a number of budgets e.g. Health Insurance Fund (HIF) or HCS. It is not anticipated that this will come from within the Our Hospital' project.
2. The Government Plan process for 2020 started in April 2019. The Jersey Care Model (JCM) was not developed at that point. HCS officers started work on the JCM in May 2019, and so were not in a position to submit any request for funding in the 2020 Government Plan. We are not seeking an allocation of funding early this year. The JCM feasibility and costing will be presented back to the Assembly later this year and we will be following the Government Plan process for any funding requests for 2021.