Guernsey's health department calls for change to budget

Guernsey's Health and Social Services Department has asked for its savings target for 2012 to be reduced.

The department has been asked to make £2.35m of savings in 2012, as part of the Financial Transformation Programme.

Minister Hunter Adam has asked for the savings target to be reduced to £1m and warned if it does not change its services would suffer.

He said the department may have to look at suspending introducing new services, rather than cutting existing ones.

If that was approved it would mean improvements to learning disability respite care and a new scheme to reduce the number of children needing to go into foster care, residential homes or be adopted.

The department has the biggest budget of the department at more than £106m, which is nearly a third of the total budget for all States departments and committees.