New Zealand trip obvious says Minister

Health Minister Howard Quayle says his recent fact-finding trip to New Zealand was as "obvious as breathing air".

Mr Quayle and Chief Officer Mark Charters from the Department of Health and Social Care have just returned from a tour to see how the country's public health care system, which is based on the Canterbury model, serves the population.

The model provides a much broader range of care in the community than exists at present in the Isle of Man and is said to benefit both patients and the taxpayer.

There have been criticisms in some quarters on government spending money on such trips, but Mr Quayle says members of the business community understand that sometimes they have to be made - and can really reap benefits in the long run: