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The States’ will be taking on “financial obligations and risks” when it takes over the running of St John’s Residential Home in a few weeks, the President of Health & Social Care has confirmed.
Deputy Al Brouard told the States Assembly yesterday that efficiency savings and benefits from “economies of scale” would also be investigated in due course, following Rule 11 questions lodged by Deputy Gavin St Pier.
But he said these would only follow the decision to purchase the Saumarez Park based residential home, at market value, from January 1 2023 to “ensure the continuing of care for the residents”.
This includes the purchase of a separate property, owned by the current operators, to house staff.
HSC will receive payments from the Long Term Care Insurance Fund on the same basis as the home’s current operator.
Deputy Brouard was unable to detail the full costs to the taxpayer of the nationalisation when prompted but said those costs will eventually be revealed.
Deputy St Pier also questioned the costs of running the Home’s associated staff accommodation, which Deputy Brouard said would likely fall under the Policy & Resources Committees’ property portfolio and is therefore for it to answer.
Pictured: Deputy St Pier sought further clarity over the States' latest nationalisation in healthcare following the takeover of primary care in Alderney.
Deputy Brouard also confirmed that all staff who wish to continue working at the home, but under the employment of the States, would be subject to its terms and conditions but would “not be financially disadvantaged by the transfer”.
He told Deputy John Gollop that he believes most staff are happy to continue in employment, but was unable to respond to Deputy St Pier’s question if staff at the home may be better paid than their equivalents currently in States’ employment.
Issues at the home were initially raised by Deputy Lyndon Trott during last month’s States’ meeting.
He asked Deputy Brouard if he was aware of problems relating to the home’s lift and whether the problem could be investigated.
“St Johns Residential Home at Saumarez Park, I’m told, has had an unfunctional lift for over two months… as a consequence many residents are having to live, due to mobility issues, exclusively on the ground floor. I shan’t be going into any details into what difficulties this causes, but apparently it is significant,” he said.
Deputy Brouard said he wasn’t aware of the broken lift but would be “happy to take that forward”.
Just weeks later the States announced that St John’s would be nationalised, with the support of Health & Social Care, Policy & Resources, and Employment & Social Security.
Questions posed by Express regarding the lift and other matters at St John's remain unanswered so far.
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