Doctors' and dentists' charges to be reviewed by watchdog

Monday 10 February 2014

The high cost of going to the doctor or dentist in Jersey is to be reviewed by the competition regulator this year.

In an interview with monthly business magazine Connect, the Chief Executive of the Channel Islands' Competition Regulatory Authorities, Andrew Riseley, has said that after taking on high profile issues about phone landlines and grocery prices, their attention was turning to the costs of primary healthcare.

In the March edition of Connect, Mr Riseley said that the Commerce and Employment department in Guernsey had made the original request to look into the charges, but they would be conducting their investigation in both Jersey and Guernsey. 

He said: “The main market study that we have lined up for 2014 will be into primary healthcare, and just as groceries was done on a pan-Channel Island basis we plan to review primary healthcare on a pan-Island basis as well.

“It’s one of the areas where we in the Channel Islands are quite different to many other parts of the world; here, you pay for the doctor and it’s a big expense and it’s something that people like the Jersey Consumer Council have looked at in quite a bit of detail in recent years, and so there’s a good body of useful evidence for us to build a market study on.”

GP costs are a complicated subject – last month the head of Jersey’s GP association said that the Island could face a “looming recruitment crisis” over a growing pay gap with the UK.

Dr Nigel Minihane also said at the time that the States should be contributing more to the cost of going to the doctor.

He said: “I know that the widespread belief is that Jersey GPs earn a fortune and that they are expensive. They are expensive, and the reason for that – in my view – is that Social Security do not subsidise to the degree that they should.”