IOM DHSC & MANX CARE

[Kopek]

I agree that the 220k saving has been deliberately chosen to not offer  good value to the public, cancelling operations fgor JUST 220k saving?

If they had offered to save 2mil against their 18mil underfund, then we may ahve supported it but Manxcare don't want us to support cuts, do they?

[Gladys]

One area to look at is the referral to the UK for treatment.  I know of one example where an op, consultation, and exploratory procedure are all booked in three different trips over the next month or so.   Could they not be combined into one trip?  It would certainly suit the patient better, but the appointment  times are dictated by the other hospital, a bit of management from this end could reduce the trips and cost, you would think. 

[hampsterkahn]

1 hour ago, littlebushy said:

Meanwhile, elective surgery is being cut to save cash:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/manx-care-hopes-to-save-220k-by-reducing-elective-surgery/

I'm not entirely convinced that this is a good move! Clearly the surgeons, theatre staff are still going to be paid for not operating. Did we not also just spend a fortune on Synaptik to reduce lists. We will need to bring them back in the future to reduce the long waiting lists.

When  a govt. Dept is required to say where  savings can be made it produces proposals that threaten to reduce core services.- closing schools, reducing surgery etc., in the  anticipation  that the  public and political reaction will be such as to  prevent them being implemented.

The obligation to ‘ come up with something ‘ having been satisfied, the Dept  carries on as before.

[Andy Onchan]

21 minutes ago, Jarndyce said:

Arguably Nobles have been underfunded since July 2003 - discussed many times in this thread.

Indeed. But how many other organisations were asked to tender for the services that Synaptic currently perform? How do we know we can't get the same services for less?

[Moghrey Mie]

I find it hard to understand why some people say Manx Care is secretive. They seem to have a better grip on where their money is being spent than most government departments do.

All their board meeting papers are available for the public to see.

https://www.gov.im/media/1385371/public-board-100924_papers_compressed.pdf

 

 

[cissolt]

3 hours ago, Moghrey Mie said:

I find it hard to understand why some people say Manx Care is secretive. They seem to have a better grip on where their money is being spent than most government departments do.

All their board meeting papers are available for the public to see.

https://www.gov.im/media/1385371/public-board-100924_papers_compressed.pdf

 

 

I suspect it's because they appear to be transparent, but as the synaptik funds show, they have spent all the money and failed (by quite some way, to actually deliver .

 

If you offered manxcare 500,000,000 I think they would spent it all and we would barely notice an improvement in service.

We have LESS people using manxcares services than ever before but they are spending more money and delivering less services.

[Harry Lamb]

34 minutes ago, cissolt said:

I suspect it's because they appear to be transparent, but as the synaptik funds show, they have spent all the money and failed (by quite some way, to actually deliver .

 

If you offered manxcare 500,000,000 I think they would spent it all and we would barely notice an improvement in service.

We have LESS people using manxcares services than ever before but they are spending more money and delivering less services.

There may be fewer people accessing fewer services, but the individual conditions and treatments may be more expensive. 

[mad_manx]

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/doctors-anger-over-isle-of-man-government-plans-to-cut-some-surgeries-725871

 

Wasn't there news a few days ago that staff  were happy with Manx Care?? 

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/manx-cares-clinical-directors-give-backing-to-chief-executive-teresa-cope-725256

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 05:20 PM by mad_manx

[Moghrey Mie]

You can't have it both ways. Either they save money or they over-spend on elective surgery.

Which do you want?

 

[Jarndyce]

56 minutes ago, mad_manx said:

Wasn't there news a few days ago that staff  were happy with Manx Care??

Arguably, clinical directors are management, not “staff”.

[mad_manx]

1 hour ago, Jarndyce said:

Arguably, clinical directors are management, not “staff”.

Are they doctors or nurses or managers? 

I thought that "clinical" meant that it was not management ? 

[Vaaish]

7 minutes ago, mad_manx said:

Are they doctors or nurses or managers? 

I thought that "clinical" meant that it was not management ? 

I think a clinical director is always a doctor - who leads medical delivery/patient care in a particular specialty, for example anaesthesia, or paediatrics. However, I think they are, at least to some degree, also responsible for the performance of the other medics (and possibly other health professionals) in that specialty, so in that respect they are also managers, albeit medically qualified managers. 

[Zulu]

35 minutes ago, Vaaish said:

I think a clinical director is always a doctor - who leads medical delivery/patient care in a particular specialty, for example anaesthesia, or paediatrics. However, I think they are, at least to some degree, also responsible for the performance of the other medics (and possibly other health professionals) in that specialty, so in that respect they are also managers, albeit medically qualified managers. 

This is the job spec for a clinical director.

[Vaaish]

3 minutes ago, Zulu said:

This is the job spec for a clinical director.

Thanks for that - I guess it’s a UK NHS document - not sure that Manx Care has, for example, a ‘Divisional Director of Operations’. It’s also very interesting to see that one responsibility is to ‘Ensure services operate to agreed budgets…’! Not sure how well that is being delivered by Clinical Directors at Noble’s.

[Roger Mexico]

16 hours ago, mad_manx said:

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/doctors-anger-over-isle-of-man-government-plans-to-cut-some-surgeries-725871

Wasn't there news a few days ago that staff  were happy with Manx Care?? 

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/manx-cares-clinical-directors-give-backing-to-chief-executive-teresa-cope-725256

Well the latter relates only to "Manx Care's Clinical Directors" according to this cryptic Facebook post:

Please see below statement from Manx Care's Clinical Directors:
"Since the inception of Manx Care the CEO Teresa Cope and the Board of Directors have been working to deliver the Mandate and the Sir Jonathan Michael's recommendations.
The Clinical Directors express their full support for the CEO of Manx Care Teresa Cope and the Board of Directors in achieving these outcomes. We look forward to working with Teresa and the Board to continue the progress and achievements made so far with Manx Care.”
- Clinical Directors, Manx Care

Even ignoring the fact that this has the tone of something dictated at the point of a gun,  it's not clear who the clinical directors are.  Or even how many exist - we know the number of medical directors varies according to whatever Hooper thinks words mean at that moment.  Or why they feel obliged to issue this rather terse and minimal statement of support.  But if you're in a situation where you're being spooked by Kevin Oliphant-Smith and 176 random names, you've got big problems anyway.

However one thing we can be sure of is that no matter how much the bureaucracy has expanded, the number of clinical directors is likely to be small compared to total number of doctors on the Island, who are what the IOMMS claim to represent.  Whether they do or not, in this particular case they have cause to make a fuss - something I'll discuss in detail later.