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The Chair of Guernsey's Medical Specialist Group has reiterated that no one's health care will suffer as a result of raising concerns, after the publication of an open letter authored by parents who have complained about the island's safeguarding processes.
Guernsey’s media has been given a letter written by families who say their children have been affected by failures in safeguarding at the MSG.
It has been shared in tandem with a Learning Report commissioned in April 2021 by the Responsible Officer, Dr Peter Rabey, following concerns with the use of safeguarding processes in Guernsey.
The families have chosen to remain anonymous as their children require ongoing treatment with the MSG.
Express has received responses to the report and the anonymous letter.
On 15 September Deputy Gavin St Pier was cleared of any wrongdoing after he named a local doctor under parliamentary privilege in the States Chamber.
Deputy St Pier made the comments during a States meeting in April 2022 where he attempted to get other politicians to support a motion to debate an annual document detailing the regulation of doctors, known as the Responsible Officer report, based on personally held concerns with the safeguarding of children.
An investigation was launched by Health and Social Care after it was claimed that he “unnecessarily named an individual doctor in the debate”.
In response to Deputy St Pier being cleared of abuse of privilege, the Medical Specialist Group released a statement alongside the named doctor – Dr Sandi Bohin – criticising the investigation as a whole.
“I remain utterly devastated by [his] reckless actions which have caused me both personal distress and harm but more importantly have harmed the services which work so hard to protect vulnerable children on island,” said Dr Bohin.
Express has since received a letter written by a group of families who have “historical or ongoing complaints regarding their treatment”.
The affected families raised concerns due to their belief that safeguarding investigations were launched against them after they questioned the decisions of specialist doctors at the MSG.
The affected families all say their children have or had complex health needs and that they had sought second opinions in the UK and locally following what they said they had "perceived as inconsistent health advice”.
The statement states that "in the case of all of the families, they were wholly exonerated and the authorities acknowledged no concern other than the fact they were caring for chronically sick children".
“As the parents of seriously ill children, instead of being supported in our quest to find solutions and treatment, we were blocked from seeking second opinions and private consultations. Not only were we blocked, we were persecuted by being put through traumatic and needless investigations questioning our ability to care for our own children."
A report which detailed these complaints has also been shared in redacted form. The findings will be published by Express shortly.
The families who shared the report with us said that they supported Deputy St Pier's attempts to force the States to debate it, which would have meant the matter was recorded in Hansard and shared publicly via Teams and the BBC live feed, along with other media reporting.
“As another victim of the system, Deputy St Pier sadly truly understands the ordeal we have been through and showed a great deal of integrity and compassion in highlighting our case to the States Chamber," wrote the families in their public statement.
"Let’s also be clear that the report that Deputy St Pier sought to highlight was a damning indictment of safeguarding culture and application, and therefore a significant public interest concern.”
In response to the families' statement, which Express believes the MSG saw in full early on Friday, the following statement was issued.
Dr Steve Evans, MSG Chair, said: "We are prevented by our regulatory obligations from commenting on the case of any particular patient and we are not able to respond via the news media to the anonymous comments in this media statement.
"We would like to reassure islanders that anyone who is concerned about the care they or a family member is receiving is encouraged to raise their concerns directly with us and that there is absolutely no way in which the care they receive will suffer as a result.
"We can also reassure islanders that as medical professionals we are regulated by the GMC in the same way as UK doctors."
"Our statement earlier this week and the interviews we gave were purely about the Privileges Panel report on Deputy St Pier’s statement in the States on 27 April 2022,” continued Dr Evans.
"Our position remains that Deputy St Pier’s conduct was grossly and manifestly unfair to Dr Bohin and his actions caused immediate and serious damage to the trust that is so important to the functioning of the medical profession and safeguarding service in Guernsey."
Sue Walters of the SEW Consultancy Ltd undertook an investigation on behalf of HSC after families raised concerns about safeguarding.
The findings of the report will be detailed in a follow-on article later today.
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