Better Health Outcomes for Our Citizens

I can not admit to being an expert in any way on our Health Service on the Island, but I have read and listened to our people's thoughts and issues, and read many reports on Manx Care and the costs to us all of providing a "Free at Point of Use Health Care System"

I know how hard it is for everyone to get a GP appointment, and how difficult it is to get on a Dentist's patients list.

There has been improvements made in these areas, some have been excellent, in particular in reducing dental waiting lists, but we have also had good results in improving first contact with GPs even though our numbers are so considerably lower than we had in the past. I am aware that we have good numbers of new GPs currently training and about to come into Manx practices

We need to keep improving these first point of contact services, and making sure we have timely access to all forms of health support, as this is the way we keep our nation's health problems in better check. We have seen an increasing number of people suffer from multiple chronic health conditions, and this can in part be attributed by a lack of early intervention and preventative health care.

Is the Manx Care model the correct one for us?

Again, here, I can not pretend I know the answers to this question. I see the information in the public domain, I read the reports, and I hear all the rumours of too many managerial roles, duplication of roles, failures of oversight and poor procurement procedures.

But, we also see many positives coming from the Manx Care model, the shift to one patient record, a more holistic approach to healthcare, the above improvements in waiting list times.

I would be in favour of an overhaul of this system that would put a political lead on the board alongside the best Executive Officers we can recruit from the healthcare system.

I would expect our board to be constantly looking for reductions in unneccessary management positions, making sure all procurement is handled in the most professional of manners and that we are working to the most modern workplace practices.

Our board should also be keeping abreast of developments in AI technology within the medical field as this seems to be game changing in the fields of early diagnosis and some treatments.

Importantly should we remain with Manx Care we must also look upwards and make sure we do not have unneccessary duplication of roles being performed within the model and the Department of Health and Social Care.

Mental Health Provision on the Island

My real focus in this field is Mental Health, we are a nation suffering from an epidemic of poor mental health and all too often this is leading to the loss of our loved ones, leading to ever increasing pain and more issues within our community.

I defintely feel that we lost our way very early in the last administration when we began to produce a Suicide Prevention Strategy. There was a real coming together of all stakeholders to make this a priority for our community, however there have been several problems with really getting this implemented completely, and produce the results our people need.

We have had incredible work done by many third sector parties, too often set up uin response to the loss of their own loved ones. We have been fantastic as a community in creating peer-led support and voluntary schemes for local people to listen, learn and help their people.

However, the real infrastructure and funds we need to be able to offer our people early intevention mental health support has yet to be completed.

Good schemes have been created and we are seeing reductions in first response times which are encouraging, but we must still keep working on improvements

I would like to make sure we take a part of the Manx Care budget and ring fence it specifically to make sure we are providing the best Mental Health care we can for our citizens, because poor mental health leads to more acute problems very quickly when not addressed properly.