Health minister in £2m funds plea

The Health Minister will appeal for the cash in Tynwald

About £2m in extra funding is needed to reduce waiting lists in some parts of the Isle of Man health service, the health minister is to argue.

Eddie Teare is to ask Tynwald for the cash to help people on ophthalmology and orthopaedics lists - where waiting times are now more than 18 months.

The minister said continually growing demand for the services had exceeded the health service's capacity.

Mr Teare will state his case before the Manx parliament next week.

'Long-term effect'

The Department of Health wants the additional funding to address the excessive waiting times while longer-term solutions are implemented.

Mr Teare said the department would be looking at the causes of the rise in demand for services.

"This situation is clearly unacceptable and unsustainable but, at the same time, the department has to live within the resources allocated to it," he said.

"We need to adopt more innovative approaches to managing demand in order to ensure that the measures we put in place have a long-term effect and do not, as too often has happened in the past, simply achieve a temporary reduction in waiting times."