A five-year series of health service quality reviews has been almost completed.

The West Midlands Quality Review Service was first engaged in 2013 to carry out external reviews of health services in the Isle of Man.

Seven of those have been completed, with one more left to complete the set.

More than 20 peer reviewers were here last week for final review.

The review process involves setting the island’s services against best practice in English NHS trusts.

Health and Social Care Minister David Ashford said: ’The latest review was published in February 2018 and covered: transfer from acute hospital care and intermediate care, care for older people living with fragility; musculoskeletal patient pathway, care of people with chronic pain; care of people with drug and alcohol problems; and screening services.’

In the House of Keys on Tuesday, Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) asked for an update on progress implementing recommendations from the various reviews.

Mr Ashford said: ’Each review measures our performance against over 100 published standards, so in total, the department would need to address its performance against well over 700 assessments.

’We have established a number of processes that help us to do this.’

He added: ’When we first received the outcomes of individual reviews the WMQRS identified a number of immediate risks. The department has to address these risks within an identified timescale, which is normally seven days.

’This has been completed for all seven reviews to date.’

Arising from the earlier reviews, the Department of Health and Social Care established a quality improvement programme board to monitor the ’delivery of the outcomes’ of the reviews.

Its work concluded in August 2016, said Mr Ashford.

’The later reviews focused on divisional specialisms and so the recommendations are dealt with by the divisional managers with responsibility for the service areas in question,’ he said.

The final review will cover the following areas: cardiac physiology, acute cardiac and coronary care, ambulance and paramedic services, including air ambulance, pharmacy, respiratory, endocrine, dermatology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and podiatry, speech and language therapy, dietetics and non-emergency transport.

A ’centralised implementation plan’ will be drawn up.

He declined to specify a timescale, adding: ’It is important with all these reviews that we take the time necessary to ensure they are conducted in a thorough manner and there is a chance to assess the outcomes and ensure that any appropriate solutions that we need to take and actions we need to take are put in place as quickly as possible.’

Former health minister Kate Beecroft (Douglas South) asked Mr Ashford to look at governance in health care as a ’matter of urgency’.

She said the latest report had highlighted concerns first raised in 2014.

Mr Ashford said it was on the agenda, but Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) couldn’t resist firing a pot-shot at the former minister.

’If the concerns were raised back in 2014, one would have expected [Mr Ashford’s] predecessor as health minister to have been well on top of those issues,’ he said.

Mrs Beecroft pointed out that a governance board was introduced in 2014 but abolished by chief executive Malcolm Couch in 2016 - all of which was before she was minister.