£7m to be spent sending Islanders to UK for mental-health care this year

EXCLUSIVE

THE cost of sending Islanders to the UK for specialist mental-health treatment that cannot be provided locally is projected to hit around £7 million this year, it has emerged.

Mental health director Andy Weir said the total cost would “go up and down” depending on how many people are admitted or discharged in UK centres.

But he added that the bill will “certainly be more than the amount last year” due to rising healthcare costs – not because more patients are being sent away.

Mr Weir explained the increase is due to the general rise in prices caused by inflation, most UK hospitals increasing their fees by about 5-6%, and extra charges when patients need a nurse – or even two nurses – with them at all times.

This can significantly increase the daily cost of a hospital bed, he added.

It comes after the JEP revealed that £5.6m was spent in 2023 on sending 23 Jersey patients to the UK for specialist care.

Currently, eighteen Islanders are being treated off-Island – with the majority in forensic or secure care, and the rest in specialist rehabilitation units that provide long-term support for those with complex needs.

Mr Weir was clear that these sorts of services cannot be provided in Jersey due to the small number of people who need them and the highly specialised, resource-intensive nature of the care required for such complex cases.

“We only send people to the UK when they need specialist inpatient care,” he said.

His comments follow calls to invest in specialist eating disorder services in Jersey to help keep families together, and reduce the emotional and financial toll of travelling off-Island.

The JEP this month revealed more than £5 million has been spent sending Islanders to the UK for eating disorder treatment over the past three-and-a-half years.

With the Health Department currently forecasting an £11.7 million year-end deficit, Mr Weir said it would not be realistic to provide highly specialised inpatient eating-disorder care in Jersey.

“As an Island, we can’t do everything here,” he said. “We’re never going to be able to deliver that here.

“We’re never going to have a whole team of people, 24 hours a day, looking after people with that level of specialist need.”

One Jersey mother shared with this newspaper the “traumatic” experience her family went through after her ten-year-old daughter was sent to the UK for eating disorder treatment, following a five-month stay at Robin Ward.

She said: “Robin Ward handled the physical side well, but when it became about mental health, they didn’t have the expertise.

“CAMHS had one eating disorder nurse, and she was incredible. But she couldn’t be there all the time.

“Eventually, the decision was made that she’d have to go off-Island. I was distraught.”

She explained: “Her dad and I did day-trips, but travelling from Jersey meant flight delays, cancellations, travelling all the way across London, just to spend three hours with her, if we were lucky.

“If we’d had such a facility in Jersey, it would have still been hard, but less so. Financially, emotionally, it would have made a huge difference.

“The UK unit itself was great – and it was the right thing in the end because we just didn’t have the expertise here – but it was so, so hard and we need to have more support here.”

She called for “earlier intervention in Jersey” and “more specialist staff”.

Responding, Mr Weir said he understood the impact on families of sending patients away.

“We know sending people away and detaching them from their family isn’t great,” he said.

“But if you need specialist care… I’d want them to receive care from people with specialist skills and expertise, not from people that were trying their best but didn’t really know.”

He added that there are no plans for a dedicated children’s mental-health ward, with demand currently equivalent to “one child”.

Those aged between 16 and 18 can be admitted to the mental health ward at Orchard House, while younger children may be admitted to Robin Ward.

So far this year, there have been 28 mental-health admissions to the paediatric unit, with an average stay of one to two days.