Waiting times to see a medical specialist in Guernsey still below target

Tuesday, 18 August 2026 09:45

By Euan Mahy

61% of patients referred to a specialist will get to see that doctor within the allotted target time.

An established NHS benchmark is used to assess the Medical Specialist Group's contract with the States.

In its 2025 Key Performance Indicator report, emergency department times are closest to target, with 88% of patients dealt with in four hours, against a target of 95%.

Delays are attributed to the fact that there are no junior doctors in Guernsey and therefore a consultant may be busy with another patient.

The waiting list to see a specialist is at 61% against a target of 95%.

This is the area that healthcare does less well on, but it does say the target is deliberately set high and that the total waiting list dropped by 1% compared to the previous year.

There is notable success in reducing waits in gastroenterology and orthopaedics.

The overall demand for healthcare is high, as the population ages and new treatments become available.

Michelle Le Cheminant is the chair of the Medical Specialist Group:

“The KPI report describes how hospital (secondary) healthcare was delivered in the Bailiwick during 2025.

The measures within it are shared contract measures, held jointly by Health & Social Care and the Medical Specialist Group, and are designed to describe the performance of the island's hospital services as a whole, rather than the record of any one organisation, and to encourage a continuous cycle of development, learning and improvement."

Elsewhere, issues with staff recruitment remain, but the many non-specialist roles have been filled, and there is a reduction in the use of expensive agency staff.

The Electronic Patients Record system has launched and will be able to automate some processes.

Phase 1 of the hospital modernisation programme is mainly complete and includes a 12 bed critical care unit and 10 bed post-anaesthetic unit.

The second phase is on hold while it is worked out what can be delivered against the original budget.