The Health Services Consultative Committee (HSCC) is currently tasked with reviewing and advising the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on the performance, policy and operations of health and care services on the Island.
The DHSC has been working to modernise this role by focussing the HSCC remit on the experience of patients. To do this, the HSCC will be tasked with gathering the experiences of health service users and patients, getting direct feedback and observing services. This information will be shared with the DHSC to ensure patients’ views are represented.
The HSCC is composed of lay members who are well placed to act as impartial partners in providing the patient voice in the development of strategy, policy and the delivery of services.
By better integrating this role with the other functions of the DHSC the aim is to improve the role of the consultative body so it can more effectively:
- Gather the views of people who use health or social care services, including their experiences and what they need from the services
- Visit and observe health and care services, enabling them to provide a patient perspective how health and care services are currently delivered
- Raise any serious concerns to both Manx Care and the Department for immediate action, with a requirement for Manx Care and/or the Department to respond
- Report regularly to the Department to help support a system of continuous improvement.
New regulations to update the role of the HSCC will be drafted over the summer, and laid before October Tynwald. The new regulations will be underpinned by guidance to clearly set out the roles of the HSCC and the relationship with the DHSC in a manner that is open and transparent to the public and supports the Department’s aims to improve patient services.
Department of Health and Social Care Member, Dr Michelle Haywood MHK, said:
‘The Department greatly values the insights which lay members can bring to help improve the standard and quality of health and care services. However, we believe that patients need a greater voice in the oversight and delivery of health and care and this modernisation will place the new incarnation of the HSCC as a key player in observing, recording and reporting on health and social care provision from the user perspective. This will be critical information in helping the Department to develop policies to improve services in the future and we look forward to working with the HSCC towards this goal.’
