Healthcare body's finances to be reviewed monthly

The healthcare body is to report data both monthly and quarterly

A healthcare body's finances will be reviewed monthly by Treasury to ensure its extra budget is improving frontline services, a minister has said.

Manx Care is to receive an uplift of £20m ringfenced entirely from a 2% rise in the higher rate in income tax from April.

Treasury Minister Alex Allinson, who made the announcement in February's budget, said the money would "grow and develop" national health services.

In the House of Keys this week, he said a review of "financial and non-financial information will be through the monthly management accounts".

These would be provided to the Treasury board and the Council of Ministers, he explained.

Manx Care is run at arms length from the government, overseen and governed internally by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

'Efficient and effective'

DHSC also set out its annual mandate for the healthcare body last month.

Dr Allinson said work was ongoing to "improve the reporting arrangements that include establishing the appropriate productivity and performance metrics".

It would "be monitored and reviewed going forward", he said.

Douglas North MHK David Ashford, who is also a former health minister, probed Dr Allinson about the "substantial investment" into the department.

The Treasury minister said his department would work with DHSC "to ensure that their finances and their ability to deliver are monitored throughout the year".

"It's absolutely imperative that they deliver on that investment and absolutely imperative that they deliver in an efficient and effective way," he added.

Dr Allinson said that while some aspects of Manx Care's operations would be reviewed on a monthly basis, others would be quarterly.

It was "absolutely right that people need to see the benefits of the investment in our NHS", he said.

The Manx Care mandate is to be brought to Tynwald later this month.