Private medical services at Noble’s Hospital are going to be suspended for up to 18 months, from January.

Health Minister David Ashford said the temporary closure of the private patients' unit was to allow for its complete refurbishment and revamp of the service.

There will be a new code of practice for consultants doing private work and new costing mechanisms. A third party provider may be brought into run the rebranded service.

The proposed closure is expected to produce savings of just over £200,000 in one year, partly as a result of redeploying staff from the private patients unit to wards and theatres in the hospital.Mr Ashford said there had been a blurring of lines between private and NHS work and the changes will allow for a complete separation of the two.

There will be no redundancies. Staff in ward 19, the private medical ward, were informed last Friday.

Mr Ashford insisted: ’I’m fully committed to private medical care as well as public. The service will be relaunched. It will be rebranded and redesigned.’

There are currently 37 out of 55 consultants at Noble's who are registered to undertake private patient work - but some do this in the UK and some only do limited private work here.

The Minister accepted that some consultants were not happy with the suspension of services but claimed they would benefit in the long run.Patients who have private medical care insurance will be sent off island if services are not provided here, as part of their cover - but it is possible they will have to pay for their transport costs.Mr Ashford accepted there will be a number of patients who will have paid to have private treatment in the island but the three month lead in time to the closure will mean most of these will have been seen.He said after January, such patients will have pay to access treatment in hospitals in the UK.The PPU opened within Noble’s Hospital in 2003. In recent years, DHSC income from private medical services has been falling.