'Added pressures' cause £15m healthcare overspend

Tynwald will be asked to approve £15.3m overspend on healthcare services for the last financial year, after a previous bid for extra money was thwarted in March.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will ask for the sum, which is £4.7m less than previously sought, at the final sitting of the parliament before the summer recess this week.

Employee costs, off-island care, and inflation have been blamed for the overspend in 2024-25.

The DHSC initially asked for an extra £20m, which included £5.35m to "mitigate" for any additional costs, but politicians argued the department should come back with a "exact figure".

Health Minister Claire Christian said all healthcare systems around the world were "grappling with rising costs" and even with savings, inflation could "sometimes outpace them, which puts added pressure on our budget"

"The team remains firmly committed to managing those challenges carefully," she said.

DHSC the overspends were down to several key factors, including a 3.9% tariff increase by the UK's NHS in October for off-island care, which had prompted a review into the cost of tertiary care.

Inflation had affected the price of a number of medications, pushing drug spending up by 4% on the previous year.

The department said there were also "significant increases in costs for treatments in cancer, rheumatology, renal, gastroenterology and cystic fibrosis".

Several new services, ranging from the emergency helicopter service, to staff training, and community pharmacy contract changes, had also cost the department an extra £3.8m.

And a further £2.3m was needed to cover staff pay rises, which were settled at 8%.

These pressures were cited among others as the reason the DHSC would be using the full £10m contingency funding allocated to the department.

At its latest board meeting, Manx Care confirmed was already looking at a £2m deficit in the current financial year.

Finance officer Tammy Hewitt said risks to funding around pay awards still being negotiated and unknown factors relating to tertiary care meant the healthcare provider was "assuming we will need full usage of the £10m Treasury contingency fund" this year.

Interim executive director of operations Shaun Stacey said issues remained in securing staff meaning there were "some significant recruitment gaps".

"We're still significantly struggling to recruit in our medical workforce," he said.

There was also a pressure to provide a more responsive acute and urgent care service, which was taking "a lot longer than anticipated" as it required further investment, he said.

Board member Charlotte Orton told the meeting work was being undertaken in occupational therapy to improve recruitment and retention.

She said: "We've done quite a lot of work with universities in the UK about potentially offering remote training for people that don't want to leave the island."

It was hoped a limited number of remote learning spaces would be available "if not this year then possibly next year", she added.

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