Following OnTheWight’s report last month about the Island Recovery Integrated Service (IRIS) ceasing to take new referrals, staff have now been informed of an update.
An email sent to all Isle of Wight NHS Trust staff this morning (Thursday) reveals that following a review of the service, NHS bosses have decided to transfer it to an external provider.
Service to be “transferred to a specialist service provider”
The email reads:
We have undertaken a fundamental review of the service and we have concluded that it is in the best interests of service users and staff who work in this very specialised area, for the service to be transferred to a specialist service provider with the appropriate expertise and access to suitably qualified staff.
We are working with the service commissioners to ensure a smooth transfer to a new service provider as quickly as possible and a further announcement will be made in due course. In the meantime the service will continue to be operated by the NHS Trust.
New referrals to the service were ceased in March 2018.
Response from NHS
OnTheWight wrote to the NHS with a number of questions about the proposed change.
We asked:
- What’s the business case in seeking an external private provider?
- What impact will this have on current NHS staff working in the team?
- What’s the expected timescale for the transfer of service?
They chose to ignore the questions and instead forwarded the same text we’d already seen in the email to all Trust staff.
They said,
In August 2018 we announced that the Island Recovery Integrated Service (IRIS) provided by Isle of Wight NHS Trust had stopped accepting new referrals into the Alcohol Treatment service. We have worked closely with the service commissioners since then to recruit staff and to seek external support in order to re-open the service as soon as possible. This has not been possible, and we have concluded therefore that it is in the best interests of patients and staff for the contract for the drug and alcohol service to be transferred to another service provider.
Dr Lesley Stevens, Director of Mental Health Services at Isle of Wight NHS Trust says:
“Increased pressure on our drug and alcohol services and problems with staffing the Island service have led us to undertake a fundamental review of the service. We have concluded that it is in the best interests of service users and staff who work in this very specialised area, for the service to be transferred to a specialist service provider, with the appropriate expertise and access to suitably qualified staff. We are working closely with the service commissioners to ensure a smooth transfer to a new service provider as quickly as possible. A further announcement will be made in due course.”
Article edit
11.55am – Response from IW NHS Trust added
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Auntie P
