Two senior representatives from the West Midlands Quality Review Service (WMQRS) are visiting the Island for the second time today as part of preparations for the quality assurance review of Island’s Health Service.
Jane Eminson, Acting Director of the WMQRS and Sarah Broomhead, Quality Manager are both on-Island to finalise arrangements ahead of the first service review which will take place next month. Today’s visit will see the inaugural meeting of the Programme Board overseeing the quality assurance review, a briefing open to all Department of Health staff, and meetings with staff involved in looking after the most seriously ill adults – specifically Accident and Emergency, Theatres and Anaesthetics, and Critical Care – the first service areas to undergo a review.
Jane Eminson, Director of the WMQRS said:
'Our approach here in the Isle of Man is identical to the way we carry out all of our other reviews with the NHS in the UK – and a Programme Board is integral to the process. Work is now well advanced ahead of our review into the Island’s services for critically ill adults in November, which were identified by the Department’s management and senior clinicians as the area to undergo the first review, such is their importance. Practising clinicians from other NHS hospitals will carry out the reviews, ensuring that experts in the field with real and ongoing experience carry out the work. It’s likely that our second review will take place early next year, although the specific service area has yet to be selected.'
The Programme Board is chaired by Ian Thompson, former Chief Executive of the Department of Infrastructure and is comprised of the following members:
- Jane Eminson, WMQRS Acting Director
- Sarah Broomhead, WMQRS Assistant Director
- Lesley Keenan, Deputy Chief Executive
- Norman McGregor Edwards, Director of Health Care Delivery
- Beverley Critchlow, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Therapies
- Barbara Scott, Noble’s Hospital Manager
- Mr Stephen Upsdell, Medical Director
- Dr Parameswaran Kishore, Director of Public Health
- Catherine Quilliam, Head of Community Health Services
- Steve Chell, Head of Mental Health Services
- Jan Mellows, Head of Strategic Performance Improvement and Communication
- Dr Marius Maska, GP Representative – Ramsey Group Practice
- John Whitehouse, Patient Representative – Health Services Consultative Committee
- Christine Gawne, Patient Representative – Service Users Network
- Elaine Haynes, Patient Representative – Service Users Network
Minister for Health, David Anderson MHK, said:
'I am pleased to see that preparations for our first independent and external review are continuing apace. This review, in tandem with our Francis Report Working Group, our staff-led Patient Safety Workstreams, and the management structure review all demonstrate the package of measures put in place to address concerns about clinical care and standards, and to ensure the quality of the Island’s Health Service as we move forward.
'We’re now only a few weeks away from being able to commence the programme of reviews, the first of which will look into care of the most seriously ill patients at Noble’s Hospital, which is our number one priority. As the process will involve a series of individual reviews over a period of time, smaller individual reports will be produced which means we’ll be able to tackle any issues in bite size chunks, as opposed to the 2006 review of the entirety of Noble’s Hospital which resulted in a single report and set of recommendations at the end of the entire review process.'
