‘We would be happy to help Jersey if its hospital became overwhelmed’
GUERNSEY would be happy to help Jersey if its hospital facilities were overwhelmed, Health & Social Care medical director Dr Peter Rabey has said.
But moving patients between the islands should be avoided. The comments follow a statement made by Jersey’s chief minister John Le Fondre that if the need arose there might be capacity at its new Nightingale hospital to treat Guernsey patients. The temporary hospital will be able to take patients from 4 May, with a 60-bed ward. This will increase to 180 beds and can be expanded to 240 beds. Senator Le Fondre later clarified that Guernsey had not asked for help.
Guernsey, which has no patients in intensive care, has opted not to create a Nightingale hospital, but instead focus on making best use of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital site.
Dr Rabey was grateful to Jersey for the offer of help and said Guernsey would be equally happy in reverse. ‘We would do all we could to support our sister island,’ he said. ‘And actually, to be honest, we would support hospitals in the UK, if we had to and we were in a position to.’
Health & Social Care president Heidi Soulsby was concerned about how patients would be transferred. ‘I think practically though, we would have to consider how that would work. I mean, sending symptomatic and sick people from one island to another, I think would be quite a logistical exercise.’
Dr Rabey suggested moving staff might be a better transfer.
