Health minister rejects proposed Manx Care reforms

Manx Care is facing an overspend of £16.8m in the 2024 to 2025 financial year

Proposals to have a politician shadow the board of the Isle of Man's health service would be a "backward step", the health minister has said.

Chris Thomas MHK, who is set to call for reforms to the governance of Manx Care, said the structures needed to be "revisited and changed".

But Health Minister Lawrie Hooper, who represents the Department of Health and Social Care and the healthcare provider in Tynwald, said "the buck should stop with" him.

He also described the call for a debate on Manx Care's governance "bizarre" as work on the NHS and social care services were legislated for was "already underway".

The department is currently asking for views on plans to combine three pieces of legislation to form the Health and Care Services Bill.

'Layer of cost'

In a motion to be debated in October, Thomas had raised concerns about a potential conflict of the health minister's role in Tynwald as the person who sets the policy for and responds to concerns about the health service.

Hooper said having a separate voice parliamentary sittings that would have "no vote on the board, and no power, but would be pilloried in Tynwald when things go wrong" did not "make sense".

He also said the proposal went against the recommendation in a review by Sir Jonathan Michael that led to the creation of Manx Care in 2021 as an arms-length body to run the health service.

Responding to Thomas's call for the inclusion of a committee made up of clinicians and managers in Manx Care's governance framework, Hooper said that would be "throwing in another layer of cost that doesn't appear to serve any purpose".

The existing board was made up of a broad range of people, including those with a clinical background, such as the chief nurse, he said.

While it would take "years and years" make service reforms to "something the size our health service", transformation work was "already well underway", the minister added.