Doctors at Noble’s Hospital are calling for immediate government intervention to address what they describe as a critical shortfall in inpatient bed capacity.
Seventy-five senior clinicians and consultants have warned that patient safety is being compromised by a 46% reduction in bed numbers since the creation of Manx Care.
They said the hospital now operates with 168 beds, down from 314 prior to the health body’s establishment.
In a statement the committee said doctors were being forced into a state of “moral triage, where unsafe staffing levels and a chronic shortage of beds dictate clinical priorities rather than the actual needs of the patient”.
It added that delays in the Emergency Department were “primarily driven by the lack of available ward beds for onward admission, resulting in prolonged patient ‘boarding’”.
Clinicians noted that mortality rates increase significantly as waiting times lengthen, citing guidance from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
The committee said the current model falls “significantly below even the most basic of international safety thresholds”.
It is calling for the “prompt provision of fifty additional inpatient beds” as an immediate first step, alongside stronger clinical leadership in decision-making.