The Health Minister has said she cannot provide figures on how many people in health or care settings have been assessed as lacking capacity over the past five years.
A written question from Onchan MHK Julie Edge had asked for annual numbers along with details of where assessments were completed, the qualifications of the practitioner involved, how long the practitioner had known the individual, and how many times family members had input.
In her written reply, the Health Minister said the Isle of Man Capacity Act 2023 has not yet commenced, with staged implementation planned from April 2027.
Work is currently under way on the Act’s Code of Practice.
Capacity Act
She explained that neither the Manx legislation nor the UK Mental Capacity Act 2005 assigns responsibility for capacity assessments to a single profession, as assessments are decision‑specific and time‑specific.
Doctors, social workers and allied health professionals may all carry them out depending on the situation.
The Minister said the information requested could not be compiled because capacity assessments are recorded within individual patient notes, meaning retrieving the data would require a manual review of all relevant medical records.
There is currently no central system to extract or categorise assessments by profession or setting.
Ms Christian added that once the planned Single Patient Record system is introduced, large‑scale reporting of designated assessments will become possible.
The full written answer can be found here.
