In spite of a pledge regarding openness and transparency, the media were banned from the Health and Community Services board meeting yesterday, while only a handful of members of the public were permitted to attend.
Senior management in the Health Department expressed fears at a recent Scrutiny panel meeting that the report, containing analysis of how services benchmarked against set criteria, could be misrepresented by the media.
Health director general Caroline Landon told the hearing that the full performance report was ‘us naked’. She said the department had held conversations regarding the report ‘because, in other jurisdictions, that report is public’ and the ‘whole aspiration of our governance structure is that we are transparent’.
The government confirmed in mid-July that the report would be presented to the public board meeting on 9 August and repeated this assertion last week in a response to a freedom of information question from the JEP.
After being told by a government spokesperson yesterday morning that media access would be permitted to the 2.30pm board meeting at St Paul’s Centre, a different spokesperson then clarified just after noon that the JEP would not be permitted to attend.
‘The meeting is being recorded, so you will be able to watch it when the recording is ready,’ the spokesperson explained.
Publication of the report is expected ‘within the coming weeks’, the government explained, at which stage a media briefing would take place.
The Health board was set up in July 2019 and is chaired by Health Minister Richard Renouf, with regular meetings in public and an explanation on the gov.je website about its operation, which states: ‘The role of the board is to demonstrate openly and transparently how [the department] and key partners are working to deliver the best health and social care services for Islanders.’
Exactly four weeks ago, on 13 July, the government issued a lengthy statement about the report in which it said that ‘the report in question has been evolving as a report, which we have been using to benchmark some of our performance internally’.
The statement continued: ‘We are working on making it publicly available as soon as possible. Work is under way to make the report a useful external document and to ensure the data it contains is validated and clearly understandable to all who wish to read the report. We are aiming for the information which has been validated to be available for a final sign-off process, which will happen at the next Health and Community Services Board meeting, which is held in public… [and] is scheduled for 9 August at St Paul’s Centre.’
At the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on 28 June, Ms Landon’s concerns about media coverage were echoed by managing director Rob Sainsbury, who claimed that information was typically misinterpreted, creating front-page headlines that would not be seen in other jurisdictions.
