Manx Care says the Treasury has agreed to additional spending for its services, but it will be reducing the amount of elective care undertaken until April.
The arms-length operation says it now expects to end the year about £15m over budget.
Manx Care says it is continuing to face significant financial pressures due to ongoing expenditure challenges.
It said that two key factors are driving this challenging situation, namely “off-Island referrals, appointments and procedures as well as increasing costs associated with the delivery of clinical and social care services”.
Cuts
For the remainder of the financial year Manx Care will be reducing the amount of elective care undertaken both on the island and off-island.
Manx Care says it has requested that NHS partners providing specialist care in Liverpool and Manchester pause non-urgent procedures and appointments until March 31 2025.
It said: “This will include routine new and follow-up appointments, operations and investigations.
“Excluded from this request are patients awaiting cancer or clinically urgent intervention, as well as those undergoing a course of treatment where any delay will impact on clinical outcomes.
“The decision about whether an appointment is urgent or semi-urgent has been made by a clinician.
“We are also asking NHS providers to review individual patient pathways with a view to discharging them from specialist care, converting appointments to virtual or repatriating care back to Manx Care teams.”
Patients who have had their operation off-island cancelled will be rescheduled in the new financial year.
On-Island
On island Manx Care says that the extra money from taxpayers means it “will be reinstating as many planned procedures and appointments as possible over the next two months”.
It added: “Details of this are being worked through now with a view to minimising disruption wherever possible. Cancer and urgent cases will continue and are not affected by these changes.
“We will seek to rearrange any disrupted procedures as early as possible from April 2025 and will offer dates for readmission at the time.”
Benefits
Manx Care says that “while these measures are challenging, they are critical to ensuring the long-term sustainability of our services”.
These include:
• Enabling a full clinical validation of all waiting lists, held both on and off island, to assess whether current pathways are the most appropriate
• Embedding a new way of working with our off-island hospitals through the launch of an Off-Island Transfers Team and new commissioning framework that is cost and clinically effective for the Isle of Man
• Reducing the inpatient bed complement will reduce reliance on additional or temporary workforce, thereby ensuring continuity of care and improved cost effectiveness
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