Ageing population will add to strain on HSSD budget
GUERNSEY'S ageing population is set to put extra strain on the purse-strings of the island's overspending health department, its deputy minister Martin Storey warned yesterday.
He said Guernsey's changing demographics would increase demand on health and social care in the island and the only way to save money at the HSSD was to explore 'different' approaches and rethink how services were delivered.
Deputy Storey, pictured, was speaking after it was revealed that the department overspent its original 2013 budget by around £2.6m.
Details of the overspend were highlighted in the States 2013 accounts, in which Treasury outlined that HSSD had exceeded its final budget by £306,000.
This, however, was on top of in-year expenditure increases totalling £2.3m., which Deputy Storey blamed on unexpected and impossible to predict 'specialist needs' from 'looked-after children, off-island complex needs and acute off-island treatment'.
