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Ministers appear divided over the next steps for Jersey's healthcare provision, according to a report published as as part of an ongoing review of the Government’s new hospital plans.
Presented on Friday, the Future Hospital Review Panel's interim report produced 42 key findings and 16 recommendations to Government.
One of the key concerns of the report is that "there does not appear to be Ministerial consensus on the plans – particularly between the Minister for Infrastructure and the Minister for Health and Social Services".
The report explained that the lack of Ministerial unity between Deputy Tom Binet and Deputy Karen Wilson "leaves the Panel unclear on the strength of the input from the Health and Social Services Minister on behalf of her department and how well-reflected its requirements are in the programme".
Pictured: The Panel is "unclear on the strength of the input from the Health and Social Services Minister on behalf of her department and how well-reflected its requirements are in the programme".
Ministerial division appears to be a key issue for this Government, with the Chief Minister recently taking the extraordinary step of publicly expressing her extreme disappointment in her Assistant Minister's decision to throw out a £120m town regeneration plan.
This lead to questions over how unified Ministers really are, with past Environment Ministers criticising Deputy Kristina Moore’s comments.
Deputy Steve Luce, who held the title between 2014-2018, said: “I cannot remember a Chief Minister ever commenting before on a planning application in this way. It begs the question, how much is this Government talking to each other?"
Pictured: Deputy Steve Luce: "I was surprised and disappointed that the Chief Minister chose to make her comments".
“I was surprised and disappointed that the Chief Minister chose to make her comments – it does not seem that this Council is very aligned," he added.
The last Environment Minister, John Young, was even more scathing of the Chief Minister’s intervention, although he stressed that he had only read media reports on the issue.
He said: “It is outrageous and deplorable for the Chief Minister to undermine a fellow minister in this way.
"It never happened to me; certainly, I had colleagues who privately held reservations about some of my decisions but there was never a time when I was publicly undermined.
"[Former Chief Minister] John Le Fondré knew how to be loyal to his colleagues.
“The place for discussion is around the Council of Ministers’ table and not through the columns of the JEP."
Pictured: The Chief Minister has clashed publicly with Assistant Minister Hilary Jeune and Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet over unrelated issues.
As well as planning woes, Ministers have also publicly clashed over Health issues and the controversial resignation of former Government CEO Suzanne Wylie.
In June, the Chief Minister wrote to all Ministers and Assistant Ministers to remind them of the “expectation” they should support each other ahead of a debate over plans for an interim 'Advisory Board' for Health.
The message read: "Hi all, just for clarity the position of our ministerial code is to support and engage in consensus decision making.
"This means that the place for discussion and debate for us is around the table of CoM and the expectation is that following those discussions we support each other when a decision has been made."
And in March, the Chief Minister and the Infrastructure Minister clashed publicly after Deputy Binet broke ranks to demand greater transparency from the Chief Minister in an interview shortly after Mrs Wylie’s resignation was announced publicly.
Letters and emails published a month later revealed that tensions had been brewing at least six months before Mrs Wylie's resignation.
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