He said he was determined to finalise a plan soon, after an earlier attempt at reconciliation unravelled in the wake of the latest code of conduct case against the families’ champion, Gavin St Pier, who has since been questioned by police investigating alleged harassment.
At Wednesday’s States meeting, Deputy Oswald will face questions from Deputy St Pier about the next steps being taken by his Health & Social Care Committee.
Before then, an in-depth interview with Deputy Oswald will be released on the Guernsey Press Politics Podcast.
‘I felt that prior to this latest debate and its consequences that we were within reach of reconciliation,’ said Deputy Oswald on the podcast.
‘It required one fairly major move, but I felt that could be achievable. I think the clock has been put back very considerably.’
He said he had been working on a new plan ‘for the past two weekends’ with the aim of agreeing a way forward which would be acceptable to the families with complaints and the medical community.
‘It has to go to my fellow politicians [on HSC] and be discussed with officials and we have to try to progress that particular plan. They will undoubtedly have constructive comments to add. We then have to resource that plan and get it into action,’ he said.
In his questions submitted for the States meeting, Deputy St Pier revealed that one of the families campaigning for reform said they now felt ‘renewed terror about speaking out’ following his arrest, which happened six days after the Assembly threw out a code of conduct recommendation to suspend him for 25 days over a disputed phone call with a Guardian journalist which took place last year.
He will ask Deputy Oswald whether he agrees that urgent action is needed to increase public confidence in States’ complaints procedures and remove the fear of repercussion against anyone using them. He will also ask him to back an independent inquiry into the families’ historic cases and to explain how his committee intends to review complaints procedures.
Deputy Oswald, a consultant physician and former chairman of the Medical Specialist Group, has previously worked with half a dozen of the families with complaints. As a non-voting member of HSC in the previous political term, he led work on a code of practice for dealing with parents’ requests for off-island medical advice about their child’s condition.
He told the podcast that the latest code of conduct case had been ‘a distraction and diverted resources and time’ but had also opened up a debate which ‘had to happen’.
‘There is misinformation out there on both sides, which needs to be corrected, but we take on board the message which has been sent to us by the States about the need to progress and to try to make the situation better,’ he said.
‘That is not going to be an easy task, bearing in mind that the two groups are quite a long way apart at this moment.
‘I hope that within a relatively short period of time we’ll come to a clearer plan. It will require a lot of work. We have to be careful and determine the outcomes we want. They won’t happen overnight [but] we’re going to try.’
The in-depth interview with George Oswald will be available from Monday on the Guernsey Press Politics Podcast.
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