{"id":73034,"date":"2025-08-16T02:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T02:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/73034\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T02:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T02:12:13","slug":"7m-to-be-spent-sending-islanders-to-uk-for-mental-health-care-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/73034\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a37m to be spent sending Islanders to UK for mental-health care\u00a0this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE<\/p>\n

THE cost of sending Islanders to the UK for specialist mental-health treatment that cannot be provided locally is projected to hit around \u00a37 million this year, it has emerged. <\/p>\n

Mental health director Andy Weir said the total cost would \u201cgo up and down\u201d depending on how many people are admitted or discharged in UK centres.<\/p>\n

But he added that the bill will \u201ccertainly be more than the amount last year\u201d due to rising healthcare costs \u2013\u00a0not because more patients are being sent away. <\/p>\n

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 \u2013 or even two nurses \u2013 with them at all times.<\/p>\n

This can significantly increase the daily cost of a hospital bed, he added.<\/p>\n

It comes after the JEP revealed that \u00a35.6m was spent in 2023 on sending 23 Jersey patients to the UK for specialist care. <\/p>\n

Currently, eighteen Islanders are being treated off-Island \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe only send people to the UK when they need specialist inpatient care,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The JEP this month revealed more than \u00a35 million has been spent sending Islanders to the UK for eating disorder treatment over the past three-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

With the Health Department currently forecasting an \u00a311.7 million year-end deficit, Mr Weir said it would not be realistic to provide highly specialised inpatient eating-disorder care in Jersey. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Island, we can\u2019t do everything here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re never going to be able to deliver that here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re never going to have a whole team of people, 24 hours a day, looking after people with that level of specialist need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Jersey mother shared with this newspaper the \u201ctraumatic\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cRobin Ward handled the physical side well, but when it became about mental health, they didn\u2019t have the expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cCAMHS had one eating disorder nurse, and she was incredible. But she couldn\u2019t be there all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, the decision was made that she\u2019d have to go off-Island. I was distraught.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explained: \u201cHer 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019d had such a facility in Jersey, it would have still been hard, but less so. Financially, emotionally, it would have made a huge difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK unit itself was great \u2013 and it was the right thing in the end because we just didn\u2019t have the expertise here \u2013 but it was so, so hard and we need to have more support here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called for \u201cearlier intervention in Jersey\u201d and \u201cmore specialist staff\u201d.<\/p>\n

Responding, Mr Weir said he understood the impact on families of sending patients away. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know sending people away and detaching them from their family isn\u2019t great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you need specialist care\u2026 I\u2019d want them to receive care from people with specialist skills and expertise, not from people that were trying their best but didn\u2019t really know.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that there are no plans for a dedicated children\u2019s mental-health ward, with demand currently equivalent to \u201cone child\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t1 August 20251 August 2025\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE THE cost of sending Islanders to the UK for specialist mental-health treatment that cannot be provided locally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394,12721],"class_list":{"0":"post-73034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth","13":"tag-premium"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}