Noble's Hospital: UK competition for surgical staff hitting recruitment

Manx Care said competition from UK hospitals had lead to recruitment issues

Competition for specialist theatre staff as a result of the coronavirus pandemic meant there was no choice other than to reduce elective surgery on the Isle of Man, Manx Care has said.

Chief executive Teresa Cope said Noble's Hospital was facing "chronic workforce challenges" in recruiting anaesthetists and other theatre staff.

The shortage has led the organisation to "prioritise urgent work", she added.

The disruption is set to last for six weeks as a recruitment drive continues.

Ms Cope said higher demand for staff in the UK as hospitals work to clear surgical backlogs caused by the pandemic meant recruiting staff to work on the island had become more difficult, as specialist workers now had the opportunity to work closer to home rather than relocate to the island.

'Time sensitive surgery'

She said it was "difficult to put a number" on the operations that would be put off as a result, as "all surgeries take different amounts of time".

However, she said it was effectively "a reduction equivalent to approximately two theatres per week on average from our six theatres".

The shortages involve anaesthetist staff, operating department practitioners and theatre nursing.

Ms Cope said: "In some of your areas which support theatres we're sort of running at 50% of the staff we would ideally want to have.

"The only thing we can do in response to that, and ensure we are continuing to prioritise urgent work, obstetric work, and time sensitive surgery such as urgent and cancer surgery, is to cancel other more routine operations for a short period of time whilst we continue our efforts to recruit staff and also try and attract locum staff too."

Work to replace theatre equipment last week also led to the cancellation of all elective procedures on Thursday and Friday.

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