Lukewarm response outside the States to HSC reluctance

Al Brouard beat Deputy David De Lisle by 29 votes to seven, although the presence of three blank and one spoilt paper suggested that perhaps some States members did not think either were worthy of a vote.

In his candidate’s speech, Deputy Brouard did not hide the fact that he had decided to stand at the eleventh hour.

‘I am sure there are others better than me for this role, but we can’t play chicken with health, so in the early hours I cobbled this speech together,’ he told the Assembly.

He went on to urge members to give him their backing. ‘I can’t do this without you, I will need your support for the budget, for working together, unlocking more joint working, more work on prevention, and I know full well that you cannot cease a service easily.’

His lack of enthusiasm was reciprocated by the online response to the vote: ‘After listening to both David De Lisle and Al Brouard speeches I am sure the wrong person got the role,’ said Paul Digs Le Jean on the Guernsey Press Facebook page.

‘David was passionate about mental health and all of the health issues and wanted to start straight away to try to rectify the problems.

‘He also agreed that nurses needed to be paid correctly, whereas Al said I don’t know too much about health but will listen.. So I won’t be holding my breath on people getting the help they really need with their mental health.’

Deputy Brouard had shown his hand on one issue, according to Diana Morris: ‘He ... on my doorstep told me that he would never vote for the return of a reciprocal health agreement with the UK.’

There was a similarly cool response on the Guernsey Press website: ‘So we end up with Heidi Soulsby again via Al Brouard. The Sandie Shaw song Puppet on a String springs to mind,’ wrote Travelingman, referring to the fact that it was former HSC president Heidi Soulsby who put Deputy Brouard’s name forward.

Deputy Brouard’s lack of enthusiasm for the role of president extended to a lack of enthusiasm to join him on HSC.

When it came time for the members’ election, he was unable to find enough candidates to fill the four vacancies.

He had to request the election’s deferral to see if anyone else wanted to take up the fourth place.

This led to Alderney representative Alex Snowdon joining Deputies Tina Bury, Marc Leadbeater and Aidan Matthews on the committee.

A Twitter message from the Royal College of Nursing’s South-East region said that the situation had been viewed ‘with dismay’ by its Guernsey members: ‘They need leaders that understand the complexity of health and social care and will invest personally in leading it,’ it said.

Guernsey RCN chairman Steve Mundy said that ultimately the group would work with whoever was on the committee, and had this to say about its new president.

‘The RCN value and respect Mr Brouard’s previous experience in HSC [HSSD] and we look forward to meeting with him to discuss the RCN nursing priorities for health including pay and terms and conditions, as per our manifesto,’ he said.

‘We look forward to getting around the table urgently.’