A high-level review panel, drawn from the UK, but appointed by the islands, is currently examining the relationships between the component parts of the Bailiwick.
It has been asked to consider how the islands might co-operate better, and whether there is a case to change their current constitutional links.
Although the review was originally driven by a desire to look again at the post-war agreement between Guernsey and Alderney, Sark is fully engaged in it too, as a condition of the £1.5m. loan the island received from Guernsey to nationalise the Sark Electricity company.
The chairman of the island’s Policy & Finance Committee said that Sark would have chosen to participate anyway.
Conseiller John Guille described the commission’s review as ‘a sensible reassessment of the relationship between the islands’.
He insisted that Sark wanted to remain independent, but hoped that Guernsey might stop treating Sark residents as private patients if they needed treatment at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
Conseiller Guille said that he was certainly not asking for something for nothing.
‘A few years ago I was deeply involved with Guernsey, and the rest of the Bailiwick, negotiating a reciprocal healthcare agreement with the UK, which meant Bailiwick residents would be charged at cost to access the NHS.
‘It seems a bit crazy that within the Bailiwick we haven’t got some sort of reciprocal healthcare agreement that we are charged at cost by Guernsey. Or even if it was cost plus 50%, because at the moment it is more like seven times cost.’
Conseiller Guille says at the moment Sark residents using the PEH often have to pay more than £1,000 a night, and that was driving the cost of medical insurance to unaffordable levels.
The Bailiwick Commission is due to make an initial report later this year, with its final report coming in 2027.