Chief Minister Alf Cannan and his former health minister have continued their war of words over healthcare spending.
Lawrie Hooper asked Mr Cannan whether he believes Manx Care can come in on the budget without impacting frontline services.
Mr Cannan said that Manx Care is “continuing to take forward the savings plans that they have already started implementing, and will continue to ensure that there is effective and rigorous budgetary control across all layers of the organisation and will keep going to try and find as much money as they can before the end of this financial year”.
He added: “For the next financial year, the Department of Health and Social Care and Manx Care are working together to put forward a mandate and operating plan and budget that are aligned to that are aligned and will operate within the financial framework that is put to them.”
Find Out
However, when Mr Hooper pushed the Chief Minister, saying he wanted a simple “yes or no” answer of whether it can come in budget without cutting services, the remaining civility broke down.
Mr Cannan told his former minister: “Well, that’s for me to know and for you to find out.”
As Mr Hooper replied “that is the purpose of the question”, Mr Cannan said the government is working “bring things back into budget as much as possible for the benefit both of our reserves, but of course, to negate any negative impact on our financial sustainability, and, of course, the public”
He added: “And for next year, I can tell you, we’re working as hard as possible to make sure that the mandate, the operating plan and the budget are aligned so that we can deliver the front line services that our public want and deserve.”
Get Behind
Pushed again by the Lib Vannin leader, Mr Cannan said: “I think the key point is that we should all continue to get behind Manx Care now as they seek to find the efficiencies that they need to reduce that overspend so that we’ve got better chance of protecting our health service into the future without damaging our economy and without having to raise taxes.”
Mr Cannan was also pushed on issues by Chris Thomas, John Wannenburgh and Julie Edge, you can hear the full exchange here:
3 Comments