MSG fined £1.5m. by competition regulator

The Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority said that the MSG had engaged in anti-competitive practices in restricting work opportunities for doctors who leave the group.

But MSG chairman Dr Gary Yarwood said the GCRA’s conclusions were ‘flawed and deeply unattractive’, and hit out at the timing of the fine during the Omicron phase of the pandemic.

The GCRA’s conclusions were ‘likely to impact adversely on our ability to provide the best possible health care to the people of Guernsey. This extends to the basis on which the penalty has been calculated,’ he said.

‘We are also extremely disappointed that the GCRA have chosen to impose this fine when we have already lodged an appeal to the Royal Court against its original ruling in order to protect the emergency and elective health care we provide to islanders.

‘We will now need to expend time, effort and legal fees on challenging this punitive action at a time when we are working flat out to care for our patients as the Omicron phase of this global pandemic continues.’

In September the regulator found the MSG had infringed competition law in Guernsey by entering into non-compete restrictions with its consultants.

Those restrictions prevented consultants from providing medical services in Guernsey for a period between 18 months and five years after leaving the organisation.

Yesterday it announced the fine of just more than £1.5m. to accompany that ruling.

In this case, the basic penalty – calculated as 10% of a £4.64m. annual turnover for private medical services, multiplied by the length of the infringement, which was taken as the maximum three-year period – was just under £1.4m.

The GCRA said this was the lowest-possible starting point for such a case, but added a further 10% for aggravating factors, including the MSG seeking to have the consultant who raised the issue to withdraw his complaint in the context of a settlement by private litigation, and sought to have its advocates copied into all correspondence between the regulator and the complainant.

The GCRA considered that this conduct had the potential to obstruct its investigation. On that basis, it increased the amount of the fine by 10%, so that the final penalty was £1,532,590.