Chamber News Article

Young Islanders who are passionate about shaping the future health care provision for Jersey are being asked to apply to join the Our Hospital Citizens’ Panel.

Although the deadline for applications has passed, the Chair of the selection panel has decided to re-open the process for five days for those aged between 15 and 24 in order to try to make the Panel as representative of Jersey’s population as possible.

The Panel is being set up to help provide a representative voice during the project to build Jersey’s new hospital and it will make sure that the views of Islanders are taken into account in finalising the criteria which will be used to determine where the new hospital might be built.

Assistant Minister for Health and Community Services, Deputy Hugh Raymond, said: “Since the process closed before Christmas with 154 applications, the Chair of the selection panel, Francis Le Gresley, has undertaken a careful – and anonymised – sifting process to ensure all of those who go through to the final random selection phase are impartial and have no conflicts of interest.

“However, after that sifting process it became clear to him that young Islanders are under-represented. Therefore, after careful consideration – and with our full support – Mr Le Gresley has asked for the process to be re-opened for a few days to see if any further young Islanders can be encouraged to apply. We thank and commend Mr Le Gresley for making every effort to ensure that the panel is as representative of the population as possible.”

Advice from Statistics Jersey suggests that a truly representative citizens’ panel of 18 Islanders should be made up of:

Anyone aged between 15 and 24 is asked to email [email protected] to register their interest before 23.59 on Friday 24 January.

There is more information on the role of the Our Hospital Citizens’ Panel online.