The chairman of Manx Care has said that even though the system will be arm’s length, it remains accountable to Tynwald and the taxpayer.

Andrew Foster began work with the island’s new health system in September ahead of an April 1 roll out.

Mr Foster told the Examiner that Manx Care will be accountable to the taxpayer through better use of data, which is one of his key priorities for the health service.

He said: ’It’s very difficult to have good accountability if you don’t have good information.’

But while the new arm’s length body won’t be day to day managed by the government, it will have a huge sense of accountability which will be achieved through a number of mechanisms.’

The core to this is the mandate, set down by the government for what it expects Manx Care to do on an annual basis.

Throughout the year, there will also be meetings held to discuss where Manx Care is in terms of that mandate and to highlight and address any shortcomings.

And Mr Foster said the government will also have the freedom to intervene in the health system if it judges something is going ’seriously wrong’.

He also expects Manx Care’s annual report to be available to Tynwald and the taxpayer.

While he himself is currently unable to visit the island due to Covid-19. Mr Foster said his role will likely see him spending ’two or three days a week’ working in the island, but he will be based in the UK.

However, he said he expects the directors of Manx Care to be island-based, except if the skills required for one of the posts can’t be found on-island.

Mr Foster said that while there are some services which should be offered at Noble’s Hospital, other more specialised procedures should be dealt with in the UK.

However, he added: ’There are some procedures that were previously done in specialist centres that can now be done in local centres.

’An example of that is chemotherapy. Time was when almost all chemotherapy was done in specialist cancer hospitals, whereas now, chemotherapy can be done in local hospitals and even in people’s homes.’

Mr Foster said that what matters is achieving the best outcome for patients and this would be ’on the island if possible and off the island if necessary’.