Health chief exec 'should be censured'

A committee investigating whether Health Minister David Anderson deliberately misled Tynwald says he didn’t – but he was badly let down by his Chief Executive.

The Standards and Members Interests Committee has published its findings into a probe over ten consultants who wrote to Noble’s Hospital’s medical director with serious concerns about patient care.

Mr Anderson, in a personal statement to the court, said some consultants had withdrawn their support for the letter – however it turned out they’d just wanted to make it clear they weren’t calling for the medical director to resign.

The committee says Mr Anderson was naive to have relied on the word of the hospital manager without checking himself.

The committee, however, reserves its strongest criticism for chief executive David Killip (pictured), saying the evidence indicates serious shortcomings in senior management.

He didn’t check with the consultants even after the facts had been challenged, and the committee says it was surprised he was so ill-prepared to give evidence before it.

The report describes the failures as “a serious dereliction of his duty to his Minister and, by extension, to Tynwald”.

It concludes Mr Anderson did mislead the house inadvertently, but says although he bears personal responsibility for it, his statement was insufficiently vetted by officials, and Mr Killip deserves censure by Tynwald.

Mr Killip has written to the committee objecting to its remarks.