Island risks 'losing control' of health spending

The government risks "losing control" of healthcare spending if it does not align Manx Care's service delivery with its budget in future, the Chief Minister has said.

Manx Care has forecasted a £16.8m overspend and while the body recently announced £5m of cuts, further measures were not supported by ministers.

However, Alfred Cannan told the House of Keys that the healthcare provider still "needed to find efficiencies" within its current annual budget of £357m.

He made the comments a day after appointing Claire Christian health and social care minister following the resignation of Lawrie Hooper in a row over funding.

Cannan was questioned by Hooper on whether he believed the health body could remain within its budget this year without reducing services, while Julie Edge asked where the money to reduce the overspend would come from.

Cannan told MHKs that service delivery needed to be "aligned" with the budget, otherwise it would have "serious and significant" effects on the island's "financial sustainability".

However, he said if politicians believed the island was not providing all the services it should, the government would "have to find the money" and "decisions need to be made".

Controlling Manx Care's finances was "not all about front line services", but the body could control "careful hiring", ensure contract staff were hired on the right terms, and find efficiencies in the executive team, Cannan said.

He said the Council of Ministers had taken steps to "protect front line services", but the department may need to assess what future service delivery looked like.

It was important to "get behind" Manx Care as it found efficiencies for a "better chance of protecting health services without damaging the economy and without having to raise taxes", he added.

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