27 November 2012
The first tri-island meeting of the health authorities of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man was a success.
A number of the pieces of legislation that the three islands are working on were discussed in the meeting including:
- road traffic accidents
- mental health capacity
- medicines law
It's hoped that the tri-island conference will become a regular feature and the next meeting has been agreed for February 2013.
The meeting was attended by Jersey Minister for Health and Social Services, Deputy Anne Pryke, and CEO for Jersey Health and Social Services, Julie Garbutt, Guernsey Minister for Health and Social Services, Deputy Hunter Adam, and Chief Officer for Guernsey Health and Social Services, Mark Cooke and Isle of Man Minister for Health, the Hon David Moore Anderson, and Isle of Man Chief Officer for the Department of Health, David Killip.
Deputy Pryke said "There were many issues of interest for us to discuss. In the Public Health arena there are already many areas of shared work and the three Islands wish to continue this for example, looking at alcohol and drug misuse polices. As islands, we are facing some of the same concerns and challenges; and these relate to many of the financial constraints and demands on our services, as we all strive to provide the best for the public, but in an island environment. It is early, but we hope by working together it may be possible to maximise efficiencies in some areas.
"Another issue of importance was discussing our clinical staff. The requirement for small jurisdictions such as ours, to employ generalist staff while the trend in training is for specialism, gives rise to a real challenge for all of the Islands. Together, it may be possible to find ways to maintain sustainable services in small jurisdictions, and I hope that by working together we can explore different ways of working which will maintain services for all of us in a safe and effective way.
"In terms of regulation, there is much scope to share resources on this. Doing so in future will provide a better overview, allow for better objective and independent review, and will also allow a better consistency and understanding of small jurisdiction issues. Where possible, it would be beneficial to move away from self-regulation, as this is important for objectivity.
"We all thought this was a highly successful, valuable meeting and were pleased to be able to give time to issues which concern us all. I look forward to meeting my colleagues from both Guernsey and the Isle of Man in early 2013 to continue our discussions and see how we can continue to assist each other as we tackle common issues."
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