"These situations cannot and must not continue"

Saturday 30 September 2023

Deputy Gavin St Pier has pledged to continue representing families concerned about their treatment by the island's paediatrics department while calling for an "independent and urgent external inspection" of it.

Speaking yesterday, he did not apologise for naming Dr Sandie Bohin during a previous States meeting where he was trying to convince deputies to debate an annual report on the regulation and revalidation of doctors.

He did apologise to the increasing number of families who continue to contact him as a result of his speaking out.

"Firstly, I’d like to begin by apologising to the families, the many families at the heart of this," he said.

Pictured: Deputy St Pier's full speech can be read HERE.

Deputy St Pier had previously used a personal experience of failed care, for which his family had lodged a complaint against the Medical Specialist Group, to make his case.

By naming Dr Bohin, the island's then Named Doctor for Safeguarding, she said her “reputation has been tarnished by the wholly misleading comments".

“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 on another occasion.

She has since claimed to have suffered vandalism at her home as a result of his naming her, and she and others have said that other families have been caused unnecessary concern over the care of other patients.

Yesterday morning, Deputy St Pier refuted allegations that he has a personal vendetta against Dr Bohin and he vehemently denied telling her he wanted "her head on a stick" as alleged the previous day by Deputy Peter Ferbrache.

Deputy St Pier called that an "absurd allegation", adding, "anyone who knows me, knows that I would never use the language they cited".

He admitted calling for Dr Bohin's suspension, but not for her to be sacked. 

He also accused her of data protection breaches, and other wrong doings but in the main he said he wanted to bring the debate - which was intended to allow the States to 'note' the findings of the Abuse of Privilege Panel, which had cleared him of any wrongdoing - back to the experiences of the families who have suffered "real trauma" at the hands of local health services.

Pictured: Deputy Gavin St Pier told the States that "Deputy Ferbrache really needs to move on from his weird, paranoid obsession with me" adding, "my advice would be knuckle down and do your job, instead of writing a trillogy of ramblings in the Press that mentioned me in every other sentence and trying to impress a few sycophants with a 31 page minority report. It is these character traits that make him such an unsuitable but more importantly, totally ineffectual leader; leaving him as a captive of his Committee, the Committee for Inaction this term, that has delivered nothing it promised at its outset".

Deputy St Pier said he continues to be contacted by families with stories to tell about their own situations. That tally is now at 16 - some of whom have contacted Express wishing to have their views made public, albeit anonymously. 

With more people coming forward, Deputy St Pier has again called on Health and Social Care to release the learning report written in 2021 about the island's safeguarding processes. He has also asked HSC to take a lead on collating the experiences of those individual families so that lessons can be learnt to ensure past failings aren't repeated, as well as calling for an "independent and urgent external inspection" of local paediatric services. 

"Given the increasing numbers of families that continue to contact me with harrowing and shocking experiences, I ask that HSC proactively facilitate a public appeal for those with historic or current concerns to come forward – guaranteeing them that there will be no negative repercussions arising for them," he said.

"We need to stop spending time and resources obfuscating and hiding our failings, and spend time understanding what has happened, supporting those that have suffered harm, and ensuring that permanent change is affected.

"To this end, as well as a public appeal, as Deputy Queripel says, I call on HSC to commission an independent and urgent external inspection of the paediatrics department: both assessing historic cases of concern and the current quality of care, behaviours and culture.

"Only in this way, can Guernsey families, taxpayers and this Assembly be reassured that the risk of further trauma and harm to vulnerable families has been mitigated."

The level of trauma suffered by the individual families is unknown, but Deputy St Pier yesterday made it clear that some of the children, whose health care was at the centre of the concerns raised, have since died. 

Pictured: Deputy St Pier says 16 families have now contacted him raising concerns over the health care given to their child.

He and others have previously accused health care professionals of launching safeguarding proceedings against them, after they questioned the decisions of specialist doctors at the MSG. 

"I reiterate that, for so long as they wish me to do so, I will continue to represent those Guernsey families whose experience of a child’s serious illness, or sadly in some cases death, has been compounded by unacceptable behaviours. These situations cannot and must not continue," he said today.

The States had been debating the findings of the Abuse of Privileges panel, which had cleared Deputy St Pier of any wrongdoing.

He was found not to have abused his privilege by 3-2. Deputies John Gollop, Peter Roffey and Lyndon Trott voted in his favour, with Deputies Peter Ferbrache and David De Lisle voting against. 

They were chosen to sit on the panel as the island's longest serving States members.

This week's debate was intended to 'note' the findings of the panel, with some deputies saying it was pointless as voting for or against it would not change anything.

Some said they would not vote either way for that reason.

The votes cast are show below: 

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