Jersey's health boss and Chief Nurse to step down

Two senior Health and Community Service (HCS) managers are stepping down from their roles at the end of the month.

Jersey's Chief Officer for HCS, Caroline Landon and Chief Nurse, Rose Naylor, have informed the island's Health Minister, Deputy Karen Wilson, of their departures.

Deputy Karen Wilson has expressed her thanks to both the Chief Officer and Chief Nurse for their service to health and community services in Jersey over the years.

The Head of the Public Sector and Government CEO, Suzanne Wylie, said: "Caroline, in her role as Chief Officer, navigated Health and Community Services through unprecedented challenges arising from the global Covid-19 pandemic and more recently the major incidents affecting our island.

"Rose, in her role as Chief Nurse, has provided professional leadership to nurses across the health system in Jersey, overseeing the expansion of the nursing education provision, including on-Island degrees and qualifications.

"This contribution changed career prospects of local students for the better, and this will be her legacy across 18 years of public service."

Mrs Wylie added: "Islanders can be assured of service continuity which will now be the focus of the Executive Team supported by the turnaround team who are working alongside officers to continue to change the service for the better and deliver the recommendations of the Hugo Mascie-Taylor report."

That report, published last August, exposed a series of failings in the way Jersey's health service is run - including allegations of bullying, a lack of accountability, and managers being unclear of their roles.

The independent review found in some cases patients were not receiving proper care, while the culture was 'potentially unsafe' for workers.

It also highlighted numerous issues that had been raised by staff who feared they were more likely to lose their job for sharing these problems than they were confident the points would be resolved.

Sixty-one recommendations were made to improve the service and Mrs Wylie commissioned a 'turnaround team' to implement the changes.

A separate review into bullying was ordered by Mrs Wylie in October, after receiving an anonymous letter which made serious allegations about the running of the hospital and the department.

That review was completed in January and concluded that while many of the allegations were 'unfounded', a small number would need further consideration.

Jersey's government says the departures of Caroline Langdon and Rose Naylor relates to "individual employment matters" and "no further comments will be made until interim arrangements".

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