Healthcare review

Tindle News

DHSC interim chief officer Tim O’Neill talks about independent review of health and social care governance

Transcript

00:00So I'm here with Tim O'Neill, Interim Chief Officer with the DHSC in the Ida Man,

00:05and we're here to talk about the new Independent Consultants Report

00:08on the relationship, really, isn't it, between ManxCare and the department.

00:14A relationship that's, fair to say, has been fairly uneasy, I guess,

00:19since ManxCare was set up.

00:23The sort of boundaries between the two organisations have never been quite clear,

00:27and I think that's what the report is looking at, isn't it?

00:28Yeah, the report's looking at the appropriate type of governance arrangements for government,

00:35given we have an arm's-length arrangement with ManxCare.

00:37Four and a half years down the line, it's the right time to have a look at that,

00:41based on the motion that came through Timwold early this year.

00:45And the report, I think, gives us a pretty clear steer

00:47as to where some of the areas we need to look at,

00:51and we fully welcome the report and looking forward to bringing a paper through

00:54to Timwold in the new year.

00:56OK, now, there's four options that were considered,

01:00although two seem to have been ruled out in fairly short order.

01:05Perhaps you can just go through those four options for me.

01:07Well, I think the do-nothing option,

01:09given the strength of some of the themes in the report,

01:13wouldn't seem to make a lot of sense to me as the Chief Officer.

01:16No.

01:17There are some recommendations in there around which would potentially mean investing more money,

01:22which, given we're on a very significant efficiency-driving government,

01:26that wouldn't make a lot of sense either.

01:28So, quite rightly, in my view, the report focuses on those two options,

01:31and I think there are some significant themes in the report

01:34which come very clearly through the report,

01:37which we will need to look at in terms of our recommendations in the new year.

01:40And the fourth option, of course, is revert to the status quo that existed before.

01:46Yes.

01:47The fourth option would be to bring it back to a departmental structure,

01:51and the report's pretty clear-sighted from the stakeholder interviews

01:55that there was very little appetite for that.

01:57That's not to say that members won't, after consultation, still consider that option.

02:01And that's not for me to say at this point,

02:03but it was pretty clear in the report, yeah.

02:04And the report outlines benefits and risks for all the options,

02:09and there are considerable risks, aren't there, for, say, the second option,

02:13which is to fully implement the Sir Jonathan Michael report.

02:18I think implicit in the report is understanding how fit for purpose

02:21is a fully realised Sir Jonathan model on the island,

02:26and I think there's some mixed messages in there which are really helpful.

02:29Some around, yeah, we can continue in that direction of travel,

02:31but some of the others around issues around shared services, communications,

02:35and working much more closely with the department,

02:38I think there are potentially different ways of doing that.

02:40But as I said before, that's up for members to discuss over the next couple of months,

02:44and we'll come back with some recommendations.

02:45There's a recognition, isn't there, that as an island, a small island,

02:50I guess there's only so much money going around to fund health service.

02:54Whichever way we look at it, there's always going to be choices,

02:57and that's why, quite rightly, every resident on the island has a stake

03:01in the future of our Manx care and our way of working.

03:04So I fully recommend that everyone has a look at the report,

03:08the recommendations, and looking forward to hearing people's views in due course.

03:12Thank you very much.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended