Plan to slash Manx hospital waiting lists with £18m cash boost

Waiting lists for elective procedures have grown during the coronavirus pandemic

An £18.3m cash injection will be used to boost hospital capacity and slash long waiting lists on the Isle of Man, if Tynwald approves the move.

The money would be used to pay private firm Synaptik to provide private clinicians to work at Noble's Hospital.

It would see about 3,800 general surgery, ophthalmology and orthopaedic patients treated by April 2023.

The Health Minister Lawrie Hooper said "the human cost of not doing this is significant".

If Tynwald approves the funding "we can start telling people roughly when their surgery will be", he added.

Manx Care's chief executive officer Teresa Cope said the "significant investment" would stop patients "having to wait any longer than they have already for surgeries that are needed to improve their quality of life".

'Significant lists'

The bid for the extra funding by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will go before Tynwald in October, with the aim of speeding up operations like hip replacements and cataract removal.

The backlog, which had been building under the DHSC before Manx Care's creation in 2020, grew further during the coronavirus pandemic.

About £12m would go to Synaptik, a Scotland-based private healthcare firm, while a portion would be used by Manx Care to pay for extra ancillary staff required for the ramped up number of operations.

Mr Hooper said the funding would target "the most significant lists", and in-sourcing help was cheaper and easier to do than sending patients off the island.

It comes after Manx Care worked with the firm previously to bring forward treatment for 350 cataract patients and carry out 115 hip and knee operations following a separate £1.86m cash boost from the treasury to help reduce waiting lists across the health service.

Synaptik are also helping to train Manx Care staff to be more efficient, so "instead of seeing three or four patients a day you might be seeing 15", Mr Hooper said.