Parts of the Manx health care system have been given a clean bill of health by an external review.

That is the sentiment coming from the eighth and final report into the system from West Midlands Quality Review Service.

The care, commitment and dedication by hospital and healthcare staff were praised.

During their visit, the review team met patients from across the island.

The report says: ’Reviewers were impressed by the level of support from the "third sector" (e.g. British Heart Foundation Isle of Man and Breathe Easy).

’Many of the services users we met had a positive experience and expressed praise for the efforts made by the clinical and support teams in their care. Patients were also highly complimentary about the one-to-one care they received.’

The WMQRS report detailed discussions with users of care off-island where patients are transferred to the English NHS. The discussions were largely positive with breakdowns in the system ’seen as the exception’.

The reviewers examined the procedures of the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) during the visit and praised the senior nurse for ’good leadership and strong management support to the service’ and the way the service was organised to meet the needs of the patients.

The report said: ’A good process was followed by staff running the cardiac rehabilitation service and the heart failure clinics to ensure that patients were given contact telephone numbers to use for advice and queries, so they didn’t feel isolated between appointments.’

The review team also praised the individual care plan created for each patient.

The WMQRS team reviewed respiratory conditions during their visit and welcomed the ’strong medical and nursing leadership’ and the learning process to ensure that team was able to constantly improve.

And the service was praised for the guidance and information it was able to give to patients.

Endocrine services were reviewed and praised for ’good links with off-island tertiary centres’, using the links when treating with complex or uncommon cases.

The ambulance service, which had seen a 3.6% increase year on year, was praised for its committed staff, good clinical practice, the sepsis recognition pathway and equipment maintenance.

The air ambulance was praised for its robust referral assessment, with the majority carried out on scheduled flights to Liverpool, there is a contract in place for 24/7 access to ’immediate or medically assisted transfer’.

The pharmacy department was celebrated for its stock control, documentation procedure, pharmacists knowing when to intervene and question prescriptions and plans for implementation of an electronic prescribing system that are in place.