Health refusing to release key performance report until 2022

Friday 02 July 2021

Health has said that a key report, which they did not want to publish due to concerns around media coverage, will now be published in early 2022 - once they have “confidence in the integrity” of their data.

Earlier this week, Health and Community bosses said fears around “sensational” media reporting were the reason they could not release what they called their “full performance report.”

Speaking at a Public Accounts Committee Hearing on Monday, Director General Caroline Landon expressed concerns that the report’s “information can be used in ways that can inhibit patients from accessing care because it can be presented in a way that is sensationalised.”

Group Managing Director Rob Sainsbury echoed this point, saying that he felt “that information isn’t always appropriately and proportionately then interpreted,” and that “it becomes a frontline headline that you just would not see in other jurisdictions.”

The comments caused uproar among islanders. Several people described the approach "outrageous", and one Twitter user wrote: "Wow. Makes me think the contents must be pretty 'sensational'. Can we see it, to decide for ourselves?"

Pictured: One of Managing Director Rob Sainsbury's key subject areas he felt would not have been reported the same in other jurisdictions, was blood contamination.

Following questions from Express, a Health Department spokesperson yesterday appeared to contradict these statements, saying the reason the report hadn't been made public was due to data quality issues - even though, in the same statement, they had admitted that the reports had previously been shared during "public" meetings. They did not address the senior health civil servants' comments about the media.

“The Integrated Performance Report (IPR) is a work in progress,” they said.

“The IPR is shared quarterly at the Health and Community Services Board, which is chaired by the Minister for Health and Social Services and is held in public. 

“The purpose of the IPR is to assist Health and Community Services in assessing our performance and progress in delivery of key indicators. 

“Key indicators are used by many health organisations to measure performance and consistency and the focus is on people, quality, time, growth and financial performance.”

Pictured: The Government has said the report will not be released until early 2022 as they are waiting to have confidence in the integrity of their data.

Videos of the referenced public meetings have been uploaded to the Government’s website throughout 2019 - however, the June 2020 meeting was not recorded on video.

The September 2020 meeting currently has ‘to follow’ under its video listing, but has no upload, and for the following four meetings, the site simply says - ‘filming not possible’. Although minutes for all meetings are still available, they only include breakdowns of some of the points in the report.

The spokesperson added that: “This report helps us to build a sustainable way of delivering services in the right way, driving focus and alignment across the department. We are working with our teams to validate the data and acclimatise them to using it as a quality tool. 

"It is important to keep in mind that even though data is an essential part of how health services are measured, it can’t by itself lead to improvements in those services. 

“Improvements come from effective partnerships and working together with our patients and staff to deliver care that is responsive and focussed on patient outcomes and experience.”

However, although they are already using the data as a measure of progress and are sharing it with the Health Minister at the public meetings, they added that before publishing elsewhere, their aim is “to provide good quality, timely data to support this process.  

“Once we have confidence in the integrity of our data we will publish the IPR and we anticipate that will be early next year.” 

Express requested the report under the Freedom of Information Law on Wednesday. The Law states that “information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to its being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.”

Express has contacted the Government for further comment and is awaiting a reply.