Lacking capacity data difficult to collect on the Island

Health Minister says future changes expected to improve situation

A Tynwald question has highlighted the challenges of obtaining data on mental capacity assessments in health and care settings on the Island.

Onchan MHK Julie Edge asked how many individuals over the past five years had been assessed by a qualified medical practitioner as lacking capacity, along with details including where the assessment form was completed, the practitioner’s qualifications, how long they had known the individual, and the level of family input.

In response, the Minister for Health and Social Care, Claire Christian, says it is not possible to provide the information in the format requested. 

She says capacity assessments are recorded within individual patient clinical records, meaning extracting the data would require a comprehensive manual review of mental health files. 

This, she says, would be both time-consuming and resource-intensive, making large-scale collation impractical.

The Minister also highlights that capacity assessments are not limited to medical practitioners. 

Under both the Isle of Man Capacity Act 2023 and the UK Mental Capacity Act 2005, assessments can be carried out by a range of professionals, including social workers and allied health professionals. 

This approach reflects the fact that capacity is both decision-specific and time-specific, with different assessors best placed depending on the circumstances.

Ms Christian says the legislation does not prescribe a single professional role as the decision-maker in all cases, as flexibility is required to operate effectively across health, social care and community settings.

The Isle of Man Capacity Act 2023 has not yet come into force, although staged implementation is planned from April 2027. 

The Department of Health and Social Care is currently developing a Code of Practice in consultation with key stakeholders to support its introduction.

Looking ahead, the Minister says the implementation of a Single Patient Record system is expected to improve data accessibility and enable more comprehensive reporting of assessments in the future.