‘UNCOMFORTABLE’ decisions will have to be made about how health services are delivered in future, a Tynwald scrutiny committee was told.
Giving evidence to the Social Affairs Policy Review Committee, Health Minister David Anderson MHK said: ‘If we are going to make substantial changes to the services we provide we need to make sure CoMin is comfortable making that uncomfortable decision. No doubt there are uncomfortable decisions to be made.’
Committee chairman Brenda Cannell said it was clear the island faced ‘harsh economic times’ and asked whether the Department of Health was reviewing services including those for which patients paid in part – such as prescriptions, dental charges and eye tests.
Mr Anderson said all options were being considered but added: ‘It’s still being working on. I’m not in a position to make comment at this stage. It’s a case of watch this space I’m afraid. We’ve not made any decisions yet.’
Committee member David Callister MLC queried the need to have 13 management positions below that of Minister and political member of health.
But Mr Anderson said that a review conducted by an outside agency had concluded the number of senior managers was appropriate. ‘I can’t see any drastic change, there might be some tweaking in some areas,’ he said, adding that now mental health services were returning to the department, having been placed in Social Care in the 2010 government restructuring, any slimming down on the management structure would have meant ‘we would have struggled to fit it in’.
Also giving evidence was chief executive David Killip who said: ‘We all found the restructuring of government something that hurtled in at high speed without giving us much notice.’
There are between 350 and 400 new cases of cancer every year in the island. In terms of breast cancer referrals, there were 74 patients on the outpatient waiting list at the end of June waiting an average of 36 days for an appointment. There were 36 patients on the inpatient waiting list waiting an average of 134 days before admission. The rise in the number of inpatients waiting was due to the increased services being offered, the committee heard.
The Minister told the committee the island could be ‘truly proud’ of its breast care service. He said he was delighted with the work being done by new breast care surgeon Millie Bello. Breast reconstruction surgery is now being carried out on-island as is a new sentinel node biopsy service.
Mrs Cannell, who has previously raised concerns about appointing a general surgeon rather than a dedicated breast surgeon, asked how many times Ms Bello had been called on to provide general surgery. Mr Anderson said there had been no negative effect on breast care services. ‘Everything is on track as we predicted.’