COMIN should listen to staff and give Health Services a cash injection!

The Health Services needs stability and that is something it patently does not seem to have at present.

Staff should be able to carry out their duties which help avert life threatening or life changing situations in an atmosphere of industrial relations stability. A key factor in workplace stability is good two way communications and yet the resignation letter from a Consultant in the Manx Independent points to the complete opposite of this.

Some people will see the argument over the PPU and Consultants private work as divorced from the NHS but its not. The ability of consultants to carry out private work is part of the model for Health Services across these Islands.

Recently there was carping from some politicians about Consultants pay here as compared to the UK but to ensure the Island environment is attractive to good quality Consultants (and Doctors come to that) we should accept there will need to be adequate remuneration.

It's easy to make one group an ‘aunt sally’ to knock about but let's be blunt Deemsters and the Judiciary get many times the rate of large European countries like France and Germany and I don’t hear any politician jumping up and down about that.

Come to think it MLCs are paid a hefty wedge for the handful of hours a month they put in and around government there are outrageous salaries for some folk whose input is questionably minimal.

Sadly what with family and indeed myself I have had to use a variety of Consultants (indeed I saw one today). The decisions they make are pivotal not just to your immediate treatment but in many instances your future ability to manage a medical condition with a degree of comfort. They are in my experience always first rate and the other thing you notice is work wise they and their team always seem overloaded.

The Health Service has got to rethink its attitude to staff numbers and staff relations from Consultants to Cleaners and stop closing Wards be it the PPU or Ward 5.

Coincidentally it's the time of year for flu jabs but what our health services need is a injection of cash. I am sick of hearing about how the health services are going to work more efficiently and how they will save a couple of hundred thousand from cuts here or there while money pours down the drain in failed investment funds or motor sports fiascos.

Last week the Manx government announced a million plus package to help farmers. Good stuff now let’s have some investment in Health Care.

Working through the hospital earlier this week a member of staff I recognised from my Trade Union days over a decade ago said cryptically to me ‘When are you coming back to help us Bernie’ I smiled and batted of with a pleasantry. However afterwards I thought has pay been settled for staff this year yet? Also how far below inflation have settlements been in the past decade?

Bernard Moffatt