Healthcare in Guernsey

All GP practices in Guernsey are private businesses. They are not run by the Committee for Health and Social Care. There are three GP partnerships on the island, Island Health, Queen's Road Medical Practice and the Healthcare Group, operating across nine surgeries.

Every adult appointment is charged. As reported in 2025, Island Health charged £72 for a daytime adult appointment, Queen's Road £79 reduced to £70.50 if paid at the time, and the Healthcare Group £77 reduced to £69 if paid at the time. Prices differ again for home visits, telephone consultations and out of hours.

The States contributes £12 towards the cost of a primary care GP appointment. For comparison, the subsidy in Jersey is £50.28, where the average appointment costs £33.

Children resident in Guernsey and Alderney pay £25 for a GP appointment and £15 to see a practice nurse, up to their eighteenth birthday, funded by a redistribution of family allowance.

For a family of four in a bad winter, this adds up quickly, and you should budget for it rather than discover it. The local healthcare charity CareWatch has publicly raised concerns that rising fees put people off seeking primary care at all.

The trade-off, and it is a real one, is that getting an appointment is usually quick. People who have waited weeks for a UK GP tend to notice the difference.

Once your GP refers you, the picture changes. Secondary care is provided by the Medical Specialist Group, a private practice of consultants who deliver most specialist and surgical services at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.

Residents contribute to a Specialist Health Insurance Scheme through income-related social security contributions. Where you are referred by a GP or consultant, the States covers the cost of treatment and hospitalisation, including care delivered in the UK where that is necessary.

So: expensive at the front door, covered once you are through it.

A&E treatment is charged. So is the ambulance. The service is run by St John Ambulance and Rescue Service, a charity, and many islanders take out an annual subscription so that call-outs are covered however many times they are needed.

Dental, optical, physiotherapy and chiropody are private and charged.

A Reciprocal Health Arrangement between the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the UK came into force on 1 January 2023. It allows residents of either jurisdiction to receive medically necessary healthcare free of charge when visiting the other, where the treatment cannot wait until they get home.

It does not cover repatriation, and it does not cover routine care for pre-existing conditions. Travel insurance is still sensible.

Register with a GP practice. Register with Social Security, which is what unlocks the health benefits and the specialist scheme. Ask your employer whether private medical insurance is part of the package, because many employers here provide it and it is worth knowing before you accept rather than after. Consider the St John ambulance subscription.