Jersey Health and Social Care admits error over £200,000 spend on private prescriptions

There were at least 25 patients involved and the total cost to the government is at least £200,000 since February 2021. Credit: ITV News

Jersey's Government has spent at least £200,000 on prescriptions that should have been paid for by private patients from February 2021 until January this year, an FOI obtained by ITV News has revealed.

Health and Social care admits many more private prescriptions could have been paid for in error, as this figure is just for the prescribing of two drugs.

At least 25 private patients in Jersey were receiving their prescriptions for free between the period of February 2021 to May 2024.

The reason for the error is that the private prescriptions were written on Health and Community Services (HCS) branded paper and unless the prescriptions were specifically marked as private there was no way for HCS Pharmacy to identify them as distinct from public prescriptions.

In response to the findings, the Health Minister Tom Binet said: "An investigation would cost many more hundreds of thousands of pounds and what could we do with that information now - what matters going forward is that we do things in a more formalised manner.

"I would say I am certain that everything is now accurate - and the new electronic system has formalised the process. The digital process will then avoid the issues we want to overcome."

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