Issues escalated by CQC will be more easily rectified once staffing levels are tackled, says Health Minister

CQC have escalated several areas to the DHSC

The Health Minister says if Manx Care tackles its staffing problems, 'a lot of the other problems will almost resolve themselves'.

Lawrie Hooper's comments follow the publication of four reports from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC have escalated several areas of concern to the Department of Health and Social Care.

These include medicines not always being stored securely or appropriately, and out of date medicines and equipment not always being identified and replaced promptly. This included medicines on resuscitation trolleys and in hospital operating theatres.

In addition, not ​​​​​all staff had completed all required training, which included key topics such as safeguarding and resuscitation, and oversight of staff training compliance was limited.

The process for staff recruitment, induction and training was not robust, and background checks were not always carried out in detail.

But Health Minister Lawrie Hooper says many of these issues are due to the level of staffing shortages within the healthcare body, and can be rectified more effectively once that problem is tackled: