Health Minister Clare Christian has admitted the battle to reduce waiting lists is “more challenging than we could have imagined”.
Ahead of this week’s Tynwald sitting, she circulated a detailed response to a request for an update on waiting lists.
In it, she says: “Staff in Manx Care are working every day to try and reduce waiting lists across all specialities, with a more specific focus over the past six months.
“The department also takes this topic seriously and has mandated improvements to waiting times in every mandate to Manx Care since 2021.”
Waiting times referred to covered a “wide range of services”, from outpatient clinics and theatre procedures to diagnostic appointments.
She says: “Each of these areas faces specific challenges, and making improvements has been more challenging than we could have imagined.”
Many things could impact the size of a waiting list, including staff availability, equipment availability, patient attendance and the capability of the clinicians to maintain their lists.
Action taken
She told Tuesday’s sitting about the creation of “clinic utilisation function” within the Patient Information Centre, to make sure every available clinic appointment was filled when possible.
This included checking people were able to attend appointments.
The measure had reduced “Did Not Attend” rates from 11.4% in June 2024 to 6% in June 2026, she revealed. This was the equivalent of “770 additional appointments each month”.
The minister told Tynwald: “Additional clinicians have also been appointed in a number of specialities, including gastroenterology, orthopaedics and urogynaecology, resulting in meaningful reductions in waiting lists within those services.”
A major focus would be the rollout of “comprehensive clinical validation programme” ensuring patients on waiting lists still require an appointment and remain on the “most appropriate pathway”.
Early validation work had already resulted in 43% of reviewed patients being discharged from waiting lists because they no longer needed hospital treatment, she said. The programme would be expanded across all hospital services.
Areas of concern
She added: “There remain areas of concern. Diagnostic services continue to experience pressures and a number of specialities remain under particular scrutiny, ENT, ophthalmology, gynaecology, general surgery, dermatology, oral surgery, and cardiology.”
Additional clinicians had been recruited in many of those areas.
“Additional capacity is being introduced, waiting list validation is being expanded and system-wide improvements are being implemented to ensure patients receive the care they need as quickly as possible.”
Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse suggested Manx Care could give one of its directors specific responsibility for waiting lists.
The minister said: “The department keeps governance arrangements under review and is focussing on ensuring the waiting list improvement work is supported by the leadership, expertise and oversight required to deliver sustained reductions in waiting times.”
