GOVERNMENT chief executive Suzanne Wylie has been challenged to lead the response to a damning report detailing the poor relationship between senior management and clinicians in the Health Department.
The Public Accounts Committee, which acts as the government spending watchdog, has taken action to follow up this week’s report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and has asked Mrs Wylie to lead the response.
Continuing poor relations between medical staff and management in the Health Department formed a key part of the report, which also highlighted how bed-blocking, recruitment and retention issues were putting the department under ‘considerable stress’.
Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, chair of PAC, confirmed that Mrs Wylie had been asked to respond officially to the CAG’s report.
She said: ‘We would normally go back to the department concerned for an executive response but because of the nature and seriousness of the issues in this report, we have asked the chief executive to respond and will also be seeking input from the States Employment Board on some of the HR-related matters.
‘The Health Minister [Karen Wilson] has already made it clear that this needs to be managed outside the department and I think it’s important that the chief executive takes that responsibility if there needs to be a response relating to management in the Health Department.’
Deputy Feltham said the committee had written to Mrs Wylie and asked her to respond within six weeks, detailing whether each of the recommendations made by the CAG were accepted, partially accepted or rejected. The matter is then likely to be discussed when PAC meets on 15 March.
Earlier this week, Deputy Wilson confirmed that an external ‘turnaround team’ would be introduced in an attempt to repair relationships within the department.
The CAG report’s contents were described as ‘pretty devastating’ by Peter Funk, a spokesperson for the campaign group Friends of Our Hospital.
Mr Funk said that the long-running failure to make progress in building a new hospital for the Island was at the heart of many of the issues facing the Health Department.
‘Irrespective of the situation with the new hospital, and the state of the current facility, management in the Health Department is doing a very poor job of running our healthcare system,’ he said. ‘In business, when you run into concerns like this, you change the management until you get people who understand what needs to be done.’
Former Health Minister Jim Perchard said that Deputy Wilson needed to give her full support to the department’s managers or replace the management team.
Mr Perchard, who served as minister for five months from December 2008, said that she must also support and hasten the development of the new hospital and satellite services, as well as collaborating with ministerial colleagues, Andium Homes and the private sector to build long-term care homes, sheltered housing with onsite support and staff accommodation.
‘The government and the minister must provide funding for facilities, targeting hospital patient discharge and respite care, as well as funding for the recruitment, training, support and development of staff,’ he added.
