Manx Care Chief Executive Teresa Cope has told a Tynwald committee that a clear 10-year health and social care strategy is the single most important step to improve financial stability and service delivery.
Giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee, Ms Cope said the absence of long-term planning leaves Manx Care simply responding to rising demand without the ability to make substantial changes.
“If there is one thing which fundamentally will help better manage the finances moving forward, it is a very clear health and social care strategy for the next 10 years,” Ms Cope said.
“What does Health and Care look like? What do the policy frameworks look like? At the moment, we are just delivering what we’ve been asked to deliver against rising demand, rising costs, and we don’t necessarily have the leverage to make the level of substantial changes which we need.”
The departing Chief Executive said the island needs “a much bigger strategic conversation with our public about the honesty about what services need to look like in 10 years time.”
She added that “there are a lot of unanswered fundamental questions” and that “we’ve got a lot of policy and legislation based decisions to make” which will determine what the future mandate for Manx Care looks like.
Ms Cope said healthcare on the Island “needs to look very different in 10 years time” and that Manx Care must focus on delivering care in communities, removing care from hospital, using digital technology and focusing on prevention.