The Isle of Man is getting together with other islands to pool ideas for healthcare.

It is one of three jurisdictions in a Special Interest Group or SIG.

The group will be launched at the International Conference on Integrated Care in San Sebastian, Spain, this week.

Members of the team implementing the integrated care pilot in Peel and the west will be among a small delegation representing the DHSC there.

The SIG is designed as a forum for small islands to learn from each other and share experience in creating healthcare systems.

The forum will connect three distinct groups:

Island states with populations of up to 125,000 with ’high-income’ economies

Islands, states or regions with a population up to 500,000

Developing small island states

Deputy chief executive of DHSC Michaela Morris and Hospice chief executive officer Anne Mills will work with representatives from the International Foundation for Integrated Care Scotland and the Seychelles Ministry of Health.

In the health service jargon, ’integrated care’ is a ’person-centred approach where an individual’s needs are met in a holistic way by bringing together resources and expertise within a community’.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this ’tailored approach’ aims to offer responsive and timely care as close to an individual’s home as possible.

A session at the conference has been awarded to the Manx delegation for the launch of the forum by Mrs Morris and Angela Murray, director of community care.

The slot will include a presentation on the current western pilot project including an account of the public engagement and liaison with dozens of voluntary organisations that led to its launch earlier this year.

Anne Mills is involved in the international movement for integrated care. She leads the special interest group for palliative and end of life care and co-leads another for what are described as ’compassionate communities’.

She is a director of the Scholl Academic Centre, a new research facility at the hospice, which is studying how the integrated model can enhance end of life care.

The Isle of Man will host a gathering of the small islands forum in September.