The government have today published the Jersey Care Model – a blueprint for the future of healthcare in the Island, which will be implemented over the next five years.
Among the the plans are proposals to set up an ‘urgent treatment centre’. According to figures released by the government, out of the 39,492 attendances at the Emergency Department last year, 30,000 were not emergencies.
Details on exactly what type of cases the ‘urgent treatment centre’ may deal with have not been disclosed. The JEP requested comment from someone within the Health Department but no-one was available.
The government says it wants to ensure the Emergency Department is used ‘just for emergencies’.
Other proposals include:
lTo treat more people with long-term conditions through their GPs. A total of 40,000 outpatient visits to treat long-term conditions could have been managed by GPs last year, according to the government.
lTo make more care available at night.
lTo offer more on-Island cancer support, so patients do not have to travel to the UK.
lTo work with the voluntary sector to boost Islandwide care services.
Health Minister Deputy Richard Renouf said: ‘We know our health and social services need to change to meet the needs of Islanders for the future.
‘If we are to continue to give Islanders the high-quality health and social care they rightly expect, we need to keep up to date with how we provide it. We need to do some work now to update our health and social care services, for instance by moving services that don’t need to be provided in the hospital into the community, so care is delivered in the right environment and easier to access.’
Under the new model long-term conditions will be treated by GPs, with other services also being provided by the third sector and charities. The funding for these services to be provided will be determined by a commissioning framework.
More care will be available in the evening, with currently little access for healthcare out of hours. However, the details of this are yet to be revealed.
The new model means there will be around 80 fewer beds in the proposed new hospital – which is yet to have a site – than what was planned previously.
Proposals outlined in the Jersey Care Model were unanimously approved by the Council of Ministers on 16 October.
The Jersey Care Model has been developed over the past few months by the Health Department, working with its own clinical specialists – surgeons, consultants, doctors and nurses – as well as GPs and dentists, optometrists and pharmacists, community and voluntary organisations, and care homes. The department has held more than 50 events in recent weeks to present and discuss the new model with the health and care sector.
