IOM DHSC & MANX CARE

[Two-lane]

2 minutes ago, Moghrey Mie said:

'Manx Care was established in April 2021 by the Government of the Isle of Man as an arm's length organisation, established to focus on delivery of health and social care on the Island.'

"Manx Care has been shadowing the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) since January."

They were being paid from January 2021. I assume the intention of the shadowing period was that they would have already become familiar with the organisation and would be aware of what was required before the official handover.

They did not just walk thorough the front door for the first time on 1 April 2021.

 

[cissolt]

Why has it taken them three years to start looking at a proper appointment system rather than blaming patients?

 

[code99]

Setting the budget for health and social care is obviously a difficult task, but a doable one if people are serious about it and the figures are not fudged and forced to fit the prevailing political narrative. Historically, before the creation of Manx Care, DHSC always ‘overspent’ its budget. However, It is patently absurd that a country with a population of only 85,000 needs two separate executive teams (DHSC and Manx Care) to run its health service. As someone said on another thread, we need more NHS dentists, not more Manx Care directors.

Our hapless Tynwald members were taken in by the utopian idea that essential public services (i.e. health) would be run more efficiently if they were run by an arm's length (semi-private) organisation. This was wishful thinking. How could the distancing of politicians from their responsibilities ever lead to a more effective public service? The myth that the private sector is better at running public organisations has been debunked elsewhere, notably in the UK. Just look at the mess that is the UK's collective of (almost bankrupt) water companies.

I remain convinced that Manx Care is a top-heavy, expensive experiment that will never really succeed. Their cost-cutting initiatives for frontline health services will be harmful to patients - several doctors have said so publicly recently (personally, I think that postponing surgeries for hernias could be very dangerous for these patients).

There is no indication that the latest round of Manx Care cuts will be the last. I expect many more cuts next year and the years after (every time a cut is announced it undermines the Isle of Man as a quality place to live). IMHO, we really need DHSC to 'take back control' and stop all the management and administrative duplication. And we need new legislation to reverse the creation of Manx Care. The Attorney General's Office must to be involved in this to make sure that any further blunders are avoided.

All we really needed was the right kind of political leadership!

[Auntie Depressant]

Why on earth didn’t the DHSC implement the conclusions of the extremely expensive Michael’s Report with the extension of funding it required, in order to fulfil the current demands of the HS? Why having commissioned the report, did it decide instead to put even more money toward this top heavy ineffectual organisation instead of following the MR recommendations? At the time everyone knew it was the wrong action but still it went ahead, and now look. We really are doomed and ones who are supposed to sort it out are the ones responsible for the mess in the first place. 

[Jarndyce]

18 minutes ago, code99 said:

Historically, before the creation of Manx Care, DHSC always ‘overspent’ its budget

Yes: but by approximately the same amount, every year since 2003 - suggesting that they were underfunded by that approximate amount since the opening of the new hospital.   The “overspend” didn’t start ramping up until comparatively recently.

[cissolt]

As Rob points out on Facebook, it's not underfunded, they are just piss poor at managing budgets.

They have had nearly 400,000,000 If you include the waiting lists fund and extra money to tackle mental health.

 

[Jarndyce]

5 minutes ago, cissolt said:

As Rob points out on Facebook, it's not underfunded, they are just piss poor at managing budgets.

Not your best argument…

If Rob points out on Facebook that DHSC/MC are not underfunded, then I’d wager they are certainly more than likely to be underfunded.   “Underfunding” depends on what MC are being mandated by DHSC to carry out - and whether DHSC have allocated sufficient funds to do it.

Edited Friday at 12:09 PM by Jarndyce

[WTF]

so what are all the staff going to do rather than work treating people? if the current staffing levels can over produce / cost than maybe have less staff so when working as expected they can't produce a throughput faster than the budget can afford

[CATHYJAY]

4 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

I have  used Ramsey MIU a couple of times for actual medical conditions. On each occasion they have been brilliant and sorted me out, applying dressings, taken x-rays and prescribing antibiotics. In and out well within an hour. No mention of going to Nobles.

Compare and contrast that with A & E at Nobles, where you can spend half a day or more waiting to be seen ( that’s not a slight on the staff there who are very good, just a reflection of their resources I guess)

Blood clinic there is also ace. Just turn up between 8-10 am, take a ticket and wait for your turn ( usually no more than 15 mins). Non of this appointment  malarkey.

I shouldn’t really be advertising Ramsey MIU as don’t want Douglas people cottoning on and clogging it up.

But it is one shining light in the dark depths of despair that is Manx Care.

 

I agree. I used Ramsey MIU in January, I was advised to go there via Ramsey Group Practice, due to shingles, they were wonderful, examined me, confirmed shingles, gave me antiviral tablets all within 10 minutes. No waiting around. My husband used the blood service two days ago without and appointment. He also used their X-Ray dept the same day. Great service.

[wrighty]

38 minutes ago, cissolt said:

As Rob points out on Facebook, it's not underfunded, they are just piss poor at managing budgets.

They have had nearly 400,000,000 If you include the waiting lists fund and extra money to tackle mental health.

 

If he thinks the budget has gone up for £1million for every man, woman and child on the island... oh dear 🙁

[Mistercee]

37 minutes ago, cissolt said:

As Rob points out on Facebook, it's not underfunded, they are just piss poor at managing budgets.

They have had nearly 400,000,000 If you include the waiting lists fund and extra money to tackle mental health.

 

Can someone please mark Rob's maths - by my calculations "£69 to £70m" equates to c£800 "for every man woman and child living on the Isle of Man over the past three years" 

He may have letters in abundance after his name but wouldn't pass maths methinks!!  

[cissolt]

2 minutes ago, wrighty said:

If he thinks the budget has gone up for £1million for every man, woman and child on the island... oh dear 🙁

From 250+ million at the time of the disastrous Michael's report to the 348 million today.  His maths is slightly off.. 

[CATHYJAY]

Oh what do we need? More heads of department? More Directors of Health? Or more doctors, nurses, dentists? More money for clinics? It's a tough one.

[cissolt]

1 hour ago, Jarndyce said:

Not your best argument…

If Rob points out on Facebook that DHSC/MC are not underfunded, then I’d wager they are certainly more than likely to be underfunded.   “Underfunding” depends on what MC are being mandated by DHSC to carry out - and whether DHSC have allocated sufficient funds to do it.

Manxcare and the minister are stating they are underfunded based on the Jonathan Michaels reports, this is not the case, they are in fact over funded compared with his suggested funding formula.

Nothing to do with the mandate, as that's not what the minister and CEO refer to.

You can hear it from the horse mouth here, she clearly states 'there is a clear gap between the funding formula and what they receive'

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/manx-care-is-underfunded-not-failing-says-ceo/#:~:text=The chief executive of Manx,attempt to balance its books.

[Non-Believer]

The underfunding has been in place for about 12 years, Eddie Teare cut it in a Budget and DHSC has had to come back, cap in hand every year since.