Jersey's health services under significant pressure, report finds

The Comptroller and Auditor General has issued a report revealing "unprecedented" pressure on health services

Jersey's healthcare system is under "significant pressure", a new report has found.

Jersey's Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment has published a report focusing on the workforce strategy for the island's health services department.

The report said the island's healthcare system was going through "unprecedented pressure and change".

The government said it would "embrace" the report's recommendations.

The report said an ageing population, an outdated healthcare estate, pressure on inpatient beds, staff retention, and in some cases, poor working relationships were among the contributing factors.

High levels of "medically fit to be discharged" patients not being able to be discharged is putting health services under "considerable stress", it found.

The report also found engagement between medical staff and operational management at the time of the review was at best "variable" and was, at worst, "poor".

'Challenging market'

Ms Pamment said one of the factors contributing to this pressure was the ability to recruit and retain staff in a challenging market for health staff since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other contributing factors highlighted in the report were the lack of relevant data and management information to drive policy development and implementation and uncertainty as to the long-term strategic health plans for the island.

Ms Pamment's report said developing a workforce strategy and making changes to Health and Community Services (HCS) arrangements in such a complex and stressful operational environment would be "particularly challenging".

The report said HCS's clinical and nonclinical management teams needed to work closely with the front-line workforce to ensure staff resources were deployed effectively and efficiently and in such a manner as to support delivery of the new care model principles and enable the effective use of the new hospital.

Ms Pamment said in order to deliver and implement an effective and comprehensive workforce strategy, there were several issues to be addressed, including ensuring the accuracy and completion of workforce and clinical data, and the future direction of the care model, among other things.

It said the resolution of policies in key areas affecting the workforce, including terms and conditions for particular staff groups and on-call policies and arrangements for medical staff also needed to be addressed.

Caroline Landon, chief officer for HCS, said the department "welcomes the findings" and "will embrace the recommendations made".

She concurred that HCS was facing issues in recruiting staff "due to a challenging worldwide market for health staff", but work was "ongoing to address the barriers to recruitment and retention of workers".

She added that workforce planning was "already under way" and HCS was "introducing a number of initiatives to try to proactively recruit substantive doctors to reduce the locum usage at all grades".