Reviews highlight health care staff training and recruitment issues

Mental health and the emergency doctor service were among the latest to be assessed

Recruiting and training staff were two of the key issues highlighted in a review of Manx Care's services.

The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to carry reviews out.

It has now assessed acute and community care, the Manx Emergency Doctor Service (MEDS), integrated mental health services and leadership and governance.

The reports identify an inconsistent approach to mandatory training and gaps in some recommended training.

As well as staffing, the report called for improvements in culture, medicines management and safeguarding training.

In the last year, the CQC has reviewed healthcare services to establish a baseline for improvement.

'Avoidable harm'

The latest reports found that there was an "inconsistent approach to mandatory training throughout the hospital" and "not all staff had completed all required and recommended training for their role".

The findings revealed in MEDS it was not always demonstrated "that all staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles".

In mental health the main issue was staff shortages, where there was not always enough "staff to keep patients safe from avoidable harm".

The review also found the number of patients was "too high to ensure that staff could give each patient the time or treatment that they needed" and the Crisis Response and Home Treatment Team was "reliant on bank and agency staff".

Manx Care's executive director of nursing Paul Moore said overall staffing was "extraordinarily difficult" with more people leaving than being recruited.

Mr Moore said the problems with not training enough people to fill the gaps stemmed back as far as 2008 and the health care provider needed to be focussed on the future.

Health Minister Lawrie Hooper said some improvements would "take time" but other issues could be resolved more quickly.

He said the health department would monitor those changes based on Manx Care's action plan.

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