Deputy Lester Queripel was the catalyst for the summary being made public following a number of questions he put to the department.
The full report by David Gedze has not been published, but the abridged version stated that the island had good mental health services ‘which in many ways are as good as or better than those in most countries in the world’.
However, Deputy Queripel said questions remained.
‘Despite the report being referred to as ‘a glowing assessment’, I still think we need another review by an independent, non-biased body to establish whether or not HSC’s response to the recommendations made by Mr Gedze, have resulted in the required improvements to the service.
‘Also to establish whether there are other areas within the service that need to be improved.
‘I have been invited by HSC to “view” our mental health services and meet with staff members and committee members, and at some stage in the future I do intend taking them up on their offer.
‘However, in the meantime I will continue to ask formal questions such as rule 14, in the interest of openness, honesty and transparency, because then the answers are on record officially and can’t be disputed at a later date.’
The full report, which was completed in 2018, remains under wraps because under the terms of which it was produced people who provided input were promised confidentiality.
The summary details low waiting times, a sufficient number of in-patient beds, and a focus on the physical health and wellbeing of patients.
Deputy Queripel is not the only politician asking questions about mental health services, Deputy Gavin St Pier has submitted oral questions for Health & Social Care at next week’s States meeting.
Deputy St Pier said he had heard a different version of mental health services from the one published in the summary.
‘There are some obvious follow up questions that have emerged from what the committee has published, which arise from what appears to be a mismatch between what the report says and the lived experience recounted to me and to others from service users and from those that work in the service.
‘The purpose of the question is to ascertain that when Mr Gedze does come back, which the committee have indicated that he will, that he will have access to a wider group of people than just the professionals within the service, because I think it’s important that he gets a fully rounded picture and isn’t just getting one version of events in terms of what’s going on within the service.
‘It is odd that a report that was finalised three years ago now has a separate commissioned summary after all this time, particularly given that it was positive, albeit with some recommendations, why wasn’t it pushed out at the time, even in summary form?
‘So what did it cost to produce this edited version? In essence I think there are some loose ends left by what’s been put out into the public domain so far.’
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