Although it does not act as the employer for pay negotiations, the Health committee has seen its nurses submit an above-inflation pay claim for 2026, in an environment where Deputy George Oswald has already warned about the impact of medical inflation on his committee’s annual budget.
The Royal College of Nursing has put in for a 5.7% increase to pay and allowances this year. Before Christmas in an interview with the Guernsey Press, Deputy Oswald called the prospect of reducing healthcare spend ‘in view of the pressures we’re facing’ as ‘unreal’.
The HSC budget agreed for 2026 is £261m., some 45% of all States revenue spending. It represents a 4.6% increase on last year, where the committee had been forecast to overspend by £2.8m.
Deputy Oswald said that he would be looking at trying to hold spending in line with medical inflation, currently running at about 8-10% a year, which could represent an increase in cash terms of some £15m. a year.
‘If we can hold it in line with medical inflation – down to what the costs of drugs are, what the cost of medical equipment is, what the cost of pay rises are, then I think that will be a target,’ he said.
Listen to our recent podcast interview with HSC president Deputy George Oswald
He said that cost pressure was the issue which was making the island’s current healthcare model unsustainable.
‘No question about it,’ he said.
‘How do we pay for it in terms of medical inflation, which runs at about 8-10%? We have to work out what this island can afford, how much it can afford from the public purse and how much has to come from people’s pockets. That will help to sustain a level of healthcare which the island has come to expect.
‘We all want good health care services on our doorstep. We need good health care services on our doorstep to bring in business to this island. If we want to grow the economy, we have to bring more business in. We must have sustainable healthcare.’
Deputy Oswald has warned that not all operations and procedures available locally might be available in the future, and has raised the prospect of islanders paying for some part of that cost.