There is still a commitment to have a functioning private patients’ unit in the island, according to the health minister.

The facility at Noble’s Hospital was shut in 2019 with a refurbishment originally planned and private services were suspended for 18 months while a review of what was on offer took place.

Health chiefs were almost ready to tender for an external provider in the new private unit when the pandemic struck. It was used during the pandemic for Covid patients.

In Tynwald on Tuesday, Health Minister Lawrie Hooper said there has always been a commitment to open it again but the pandemic has merely ‘knocked those dates back’.

It’s currently being used to help reduce elective surgery waiting lists.

Mr Hooper said an effective relaunch wouldn’t work by ‘just opening the doors’ and there had to be a degree of investment into the facility to start it up as a private patients unit.

He added that the choice as to whether to allow Manx Care to run it, or tender it to have a third party run it, would depend on Manx Care’s capacity when it was looking to reopen.