The fifth report in the ongoing series of external peer reviews of the Island’s health services by the West Midlands Quality Review Service (WMQRS) has been published today.
The report, which follows a four day programme of reviews by a team of 25 UK healthcare professionals in October 2015, is the first following publication last year of a revised schedule of reviews.
Minister for Health and Social Care, Howard Quayle MHK, welcomed the findings of the report, which he called comprehensive and detailed, and which covers the wide range of services provided to women and children by Noble’s Hospital, Community Health Services and Mental Health Services.
The Minister said:
'There is much that our health and social care professionals can be very proud of as is clear from this latest report, and it is important that we, as a community, recognise and celebrate this. The quality reviews put a great deal of pressure on our already busy teams but they are important and their value is recognised.
'The report has, of course, identified areas where improvement is needed. There are competing demands between developing our services and the challenging financial situation faced by the Department and we need to balance them carefully. We must also balance the work needed to carry out the recommendations of WMQRS with our longer term goals in the five year health and social care strategy.'
The services reviewed were:
- Maternity and neonatal services
- Gynaecology services
- Care of critically ill and critically injured children
- Paediatric anaesthesia
- Care of children with long-term conditions
- Therapy services for children
- Health visiting and school nursing; and
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
The report highlights many areas of good practice and achievement which were seen by the UK team during its visit. The report remarks that 'reviewers were impressed by the commitment, dedication and hard work of staff' who were 'enthusiastic and keen to provide a good service.' The reviewers particularly recognised 'the challenges and difficulties in providing an up to date service… in a small, isolated community.'
The report goes on to acknowledge the clear commitment to patient care with staff 'often going well beyond the call of duty.'
The Island’s new neonatal unit, which opened last year, was recognised as providing a well designed, spacious and high quality environment.
The health visiting service was considered a 'service-wide example of good practice.'
A total of five immediate risks were identified, all of which have been addressed already and further reviewed by the WMQRS. Other areas needing attention included: the ongoing difficulty in recruiting staff; managing ‘backfill’ in order to release staff for mandatory training; and the integration of services (which the Department has committed to as part of its five year strategy).
The Minister added: 'Each time we receive a report I reiterate that we have commissioned these reviews so that we can identify where our services are performing well and where there is room for improvement. The reports present honest, impartial reviews by an external team of experts, designed to give us a ‘warts and all’ view of our services so that we can better understand what can be improved and so provide better quality care for the people of the Isle of Man.'
The sixth review took place in April, with the report due for publication later this year, whilst the seventh review is scheduled for October.
