Review of clarity of health governance supported

Manx Care is facing an overspend of £16.8m in the 2024-25 financial year

A review to clarify the governance of the Isle of Man's arm's length provider of health care has been backed by Tynwald.

Members had been asked by Chris Thomas MHK to approve reforms to some of the body's structures, including appointing a politician to shadow the Manx Care board.

However, politicians chose to instead support David Ashford MHK's proposal, which called for clarity of the Department of Health and Social Care's role within the legislation.

The debate took place in the wake of the resignation of Health Minister Lawrie Hooper in a row over future funding for Manx Care, which has announced cuts to reduce a predicted 16.8m overspend.

Manx Care was set up in 2021 to take over the day-to-day running of health services from the health department on the recommendation of a review by former NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Sir Jonathan Michael.

Thomas said his four-part motion was about "healthcare governance and responsibilities, management and accountability".

But Ashford's amendments called for the department to review the current legislation and clarify the positions of itself and the arm's length provider, which could then be debated by Tynwald in January.

Members also supported the Council of Ministers looking at whether political representation on the Manx Care board was needed, review the process of appointing executive members to the board, and exploring whether the frameworks in place ensured the "continuous improvement of healthcare".

'Responsible position'

During the debate, which lasted about four hours, several members agreed the reviews would be an opportunity to decide the level of service that was affordable and what those services should look like.

But, contributing to the debate on Tuesday evening, Hooper said that would waste time and money that could be spent "working to treat patients".

During his resignation speech hours earlier he said had accused Chief Minister Alfred Cannan of wanting to "privatise the health service".

However, speaking on Wednesday morning, Cannan said that was a "fabrication", and an independent audit report in April had shown Manx Care was lacking financial controls.

During the sitting, Cannan also told the court he intended to ask Tynwald to review the Manx Care mandate at the next sitting to get to a "responsible position" where the services reflect "the budget that they are given with some flexibility built in" to meet demand.

He said he hoped a new mandate could be approved alongside the budget in February 2025.