Access to more treatments, drugs could begin in 2020
CHANGES to what drugs and treatments are available could start as early as next year.
Health & Social Care president Heidi Soulsby was speaking after three workshops for health care professionals, the public and deputies investigating how Guernsey could adapt its health care model.
The focus of the meetings was to look at the possibility of adopting the National Institute for Care Excellence’s recommended drugs treatments and devices for all islanders.
At least 80% of approved drugs and treatments routinely available to people living in England are available in Guernsey.
Attendees were asked to address issues with the current system and suggest areas which the island may focus on in the future.
‘The professionals may have their say but really, times are changing now and it is very important that we have that dialogue on that one-to-one basis, that equality of input into the whole health and care arena,’ said Deputy Soulsby.
‘That is what the partnership of purpose is all about.
‘From the very beginning when we developed the new model of care it was all about engagement with the community, we developed that by listening to what people said they needed and developed the model that will continue.
‘The more we engage, the more the community feels empowered and we can develop a model of care that we all buy into and want to see succeed.’
Deputy Soulsby said the meetings were to ensure that user-centred care, fair access to care and equity of access are meeting these principles.
‘There are concerns at the moment that the policy falls short of that and certainly from a committee point of view, we felt that now was the time to review it,’ she said.
The team behind the workshops, including Dr Nicola Brink, have also held meetings with stakeholders.
The data from these meetings will be fed into a final report which will be brought to the States for debate.
‘We are also doing another workshop in Alderney, on 1 April,’ said Dr Brink.
‘We will end up with a comprehensive document which gives us a road map of how to move forwards.’
Deputy Soulsby added that the key thing now is for them to focus on how the information gathered can be fed into the 2020 budget.
‘As soon as we can we will publish the actual report so people can see the information early on,’ she said.
‘What we are doing is fulfilling one of the resolutions of the partnership of purpose.
‘In that, we said we would review drugs and treatments and from the debate we had in December, we agreed that we would speed up that review, so findings could be fed into the budget.
‘So we could effectively start any changes from 1 January 2020.’
