Postponing Non-Emergency Off-Island Surgery to Save £1 Million

Nearly a million pounds may be saved by aborting off-island non-urgent operations, according to the Health and Social Care Minister. This came as a result of the previous week's announcement that there would be fewer on-island elective surgeries and some procedures would be cancelled in Liverpool and Manchester—until 31 March.


Claire Christian, Health and Social Care Minister, gave an update to the House of Keys, saying Manx Care has to deal with the "very serious financial trouble in trying to maintain provision within its budget.". However, MHK Ann Corlett opposed this, saying that postponements past 31 March were "not at all a saving," but the costs would merely move on to the next fiscal year.


The health department on the island adopted a policy of tasking the only service provider of health care with "efficiencies" so that it did not exceed its deficit above 15 million pounds in this financial year. In the middle of January, Manx Care initiated the process of slashing some operations to occur on-island—as one of the several applied cost-effective measures—but it was only a temporary setback as it obtained an extra £800,000 from Treasury.


Joney Faragher put the question of whether Health Minister Christian was assuming the responsibility "how alarming the scenario had been to the average layman" and "how much people are disenchanted with our health service" forward. The health official "went along" with the fact that the community had felt the pain, which was why, she argued, the Department for Health and Social Care had come up with "solutions to continue on-island elective care.". However, having committed themselves to cuts in spending last October—probably causing a forecasted £16.8m overspend—the Manx Care Board had confirmed that its budget would be kept under control and that "additional measures were to be enforced," she added.


In addition, the ministry supported an examination of off-island care delivery that the Christian suggested was a "good thing, especially for patients" who would not have to come to a "needless" doctor's appointment. Additionally, the change in the policy would enable cost savings in "less on-island care than before" in the past. Christian said that out of about 600, about 450 would be the follow-up appointments with "no specific clinical benefits" to stay on the mainland, and the rest, 150, would be rescheduled "as soon as they can" after 31 March, she added.