Guernsey Press

Deputy Wilkie makes Health minister job a three-way fight

THE election for the next Health and Social Services' minister has become a three-horse race after Deputy Arrun Wilkie threw his name into the hat.

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'It's something that's been on my mind for some time and if I had been successful next election and was lucky enough to be elected back into the States, it's a position I would have stood for,' he said.

'Because of that I've spent the last two years building up my knowledge around the health care service, sitting on the board of the primary care company as an independent observer, sitting in on every policy and social plan and becoming the island's disability champion.'

His objectives, if successful in this week's States debate, include setting up an independent complaints panel, protecting department whistle-blowers and re-negotiating the reciprocal health agreement.

The election follows the resignation of the health board, the second time this political term, in the wake of an emergency review into midwifery services following the death of a newborn baby earlier this year.

Deputy Wilkie, one of this term's original HSSD members who resigned in 2012 as a result of HSSD's £2.5m. overspend, will go head to head with Deputy Paul Luxon, the chief minister's choice, and Deputy Elis Bebb, who declared his intention to run on Friday.

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