Manx Care’s clinical directors have expressed their full support for CEO Teresa Cope and the board of directors.
The island’s arms-length health organisation has come under fire from the Chief Minister in recent weeks for its latest overspend.
In a statement, the clinical directors, who are not named, gave their full backing to Ms Cope and her fellow directors.
The statement said: “Since the inception of Manx Care the CEO Teresa Cope and the Board of Directors have been working to deliver the Mandate and the Sir Jonathan Michael’s recommendations.
“The Clinical Directors express their full support for the CEO of Manx Care Teresa Cope and the Board of Directors in achieving these outcomes. We look forward to working with Teresa and the Board to continue the progress and achievements made so far with Manx Care.”
How Did We Get Here?
It is hard to see this as anything other than a direct response to the comments made by the Chief Minister Alf Cannan at and during the build up to, the government conference.
There he said that Manx Care’s latest overspend, forecasted to be £16.8m, was having a destabilising effect on government finances.
This came after Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson increased the higher tax rate by 10% and ring fenced that money for health and social care.
Mr Cannan also gave a clear signal that he wants to see changes at Manx Care, which he was one of the chief architects of, saying a turnaround was “essential”.
There was also a public petition that called on Ms Cope to resign, followed by rumours that the organisation had told staff not to sign it.
In amongst all of this, the Health and Social Care Minister Lawrie Hooper was quite happy to challenge the Chief Minister’s position on this when he made clear that a lack of proper funding, as set out in the Johnathan Michael review, rather than overspending.
6 Comments