THE judge has retired to consider her decision in the case being brought by Guernsey’s former medevac provider Gama Aviation against the States of Guernsey.
Gama is seeking a judicial review of the process by which the States, through the Health & Social Care Committee, appointed 247 Aviation to take on the role after Gama’s contract ended and the States went out to tender.
The process was conducted alongside Jersey and one of Gama’s grounds for its judicial review bid was that Jersey changed the requirement for the kind of aircraft that it would consider late in the tender process.
Another ground was a lack of transparency in the reasons and scoring given to the respective tender bids, and also that there was irrationality in the evaluation of this scoring.
In response, the States said that there was no arguable case to be made on the issue of the aircraft change.
Although both islands were involved, the tenderers had been told that they would have to put in separate bids to each island and each would contract separately for the services.
It had, however, been recognised by both islands that there would be a benefit if both chose the same operator.
The States argued that leave to proceed with the review should be declined.
It also said that the application for the judicial review had not been sufficiently prompt.
Lt-Bailiff Hazel Marshall is now considering her decision, starting with whether to allow the review to take place and, if so, then to conduct the review based on the matters raised in the hearing.
Gama Aviation has provided the air ambulance service in Guernsey and Jersey since August 2020.
It operates a twin-engined Beechcraft King Air B200 aircraft, which has provided a 24-hour, 365-days-a-year service between the Channel Islands and UK health services.
