The Minister of Health and Social Care has said Manx Care must tackle issues directly and improve the way they provide updates in their second year, as he recognises the contribution from staff during a difficult first year.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has outlined its expectations in a letter responding to the Manx Care Annual Report 2021-22, which will be discussed at the December sitting of Tynwald.
The Mandate, or agreement, between DHSC and Manx Care sets out targets and expectations to be delivered.
In this first review 12 high-level objectives were measured – ranging from response to the pandemic to integration of services, waiting times, and finances. Only four of these were ‘achieved’ or ‘mostly achieved’, six were ‘partly achieved’ and two ‘not achieved’.
The letter acknowledges that COVID-19 disrupted the delivery and changed the shape of health and social care services globally, it also exacerbated existing issues with staffing, access to medical pathways and waiting lists.
The importance of providing accurate high-quality performance data has also been highlighted by the Department, so that they can ensure that Manx Care, alongside the Health and Care Transformation team, are making positive changes which will improve the experiences of patients and service users.
As part of this process the 2022-23 Mandate has been updated so that the targets are realistic, measurable, and deliverable. There will also be a clear path for holding parties accountable.
Minister for Health and Social Care, Rob Callister MHK, said:
‘Firstly the Department would like to sincerely thank the staff at Manx for their hard work – they’ve shown a heroic dedication to their work through arduous times, and great flexibility: sometimes lacking much-needed resource. That commitment has ensured services continued to be delivered under challenging circumstances, regardless of the strain people working for our healthcare system were put under.'
He continued:
'Overall the Department is pleased with the progress that Manx Care has made under the circumstances, though some work has been difficult to measure due to a lack of data. This is just the first report, and both the Department Manx Care are aware that there is a lot more work to do. We are finding our feet with our new roles, establishing processes and recovering services after the pandemic. We would expect Manx Care to deliver significant improvements by the end of the next reporting year, as they are able to turn their focus to tackling these issues.'
