Two current and six former Health Services Consultative Committee (HSCC) members have said they “disagree” with some of Alan Gough’s report conclusions.
The completed and closed investigation into the conduct of Minister Lawrie Hooper following complaint from the HSCC was published earlier this week.
Former and current members of the HSCC have issued an ‘Open letter’ to all members of the public, including those with public service accountability.
The two current and six former HSCC members start the letter by thanking Alan Gough for his ‘balanced report’ and say Gough treated them with the
“utmost respect”, but they “disagree with some of his report’s conclusions”.
HSCC Open Letter
The members believe that their complaint and all that ensued “could have been avoided if the Minister had adopted an approach more characteristic of a mature, professional leader”.
They said that, “Regarding the June meeting, recollections do not vary amongst the genuinely shocked complainants – current, resigned and retired.
“A straightforward acknowledgement from the Minister that the meeting could have been handled differently, as Mr. Gough concluded, would have been enough to enable us all to step back, regroup and resume a constructive dialogue”.
They say this “would have been a far more conciliatory approach, and would have offset the development of feelings of frustration and anger which can grow when a group of people feel disenfranchised and powerless”.
Difficult to bear
The letter added: “That said, it is the stigma of being branded “liars” on public record which we find most difficult to bear.
“We still have no satisfactory explanation for this. The Minister, in declining the offer to discuss the offending detail (on p16 of the Annual Report 22-23) with the writer, and then his shocking assertion in Tynwald Court on 31 October that the HSCC had written “deliberate falsehoods”, has caused deep offence to each one of us.
“Being apparently right (or “not wrong”) about something is not the only thing that matters. We agree with Mr. Gough when he describes the Minister’s handling of this as “shabby”.
“Having made our viewpoint clear to the public, now is the time for those of us who have resigned from the committee to move on. We would once again like to place on record our sincere thanks to the many good officers we worked with in Manx Care and the DHSC.”
Tynwald
The letter thanked Chris Thomas MHK and others for supporting their attempt to prevent the new HSCC regulations from progressing through Tynwald “by negative motion rather than a combined vote”.
The result was close (14 votes to 15), they say the “New regulations are now in place which reduce the role to basic level observations of services, which is valuable but already carried out by other volunteers”.
Six members have left the HSCC in the past three months, ‘including recent recruits and long serving members as well as our longest serving member and secretary’.
The letter says that “For some the experience has adversely affected their mental health”.
Public service role
The letter concludes: “Most of us will not seek a public service role in the future.
“We are a small nation with a small pool of talent from which to generate good government.
“Ministers and political members should have access to expertise from experienced lay members of the public, from senior roles and across diverse sectors, to support and challenge their efficacy.
“The disenfranchisement of the HSCC through regulatory change has potentially seriously reduced the likelihood of recruiting and engaging lay people to provide enough scrutiny and challenge.”
The letter is signed by Annette Baker, Carol Bamford, Andrew Cole, Sue Gowing, Mike Johnson, Margaret Simpson, Louise Strickett and Judy Thornley.
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