The Department of Health and Social Care spent £130,000 on using an outside source to cover a backlog in letters to patients.

Health Minister Kate Beecroft revealed the figure in a written answer to a House of Keys question from former department member Rob Callister (Onchan).

Mr Callister had asked what the average waiting time was for patients to receive a diagnostic letter after meeting a consultant - and who drafted them.

Mrs Beecroft said that, for the 20 months up to August 2017, the production of clinical letters was ’supported through an outsourced solution at a cost of £130,000 per year’.

She explained: ’This service was commissioned to address the backlog in letter production that existed at that time.

’The outsourced service was decommissioned in August 2017.’

All consultant letters are now dealt with in-house.

The minister stated: ’All urgent letters, which include those relating to patients with either a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of cancer, are completed within a maximum of two working days from point of dictation.

’Since April 2017, the average performance associated with letter production for all other letters, from dictation to letters being produced, is nine working days.

The standard is 10 working days.

’The number of letters produced for the period April 2017 to September 2017 is 40,914, an average of 330 letters per working day for the period.’

She added: ’On average, approximately 40% of Isle of Man patients currently receive a copy of hospital correspondence.

’Best practice guidance in the UK requires that copies of all hospital correspondence are provided to patients unless they ask not to receive it.’

Mrs Beecroft said that Noble’s Hospital was reviewing its processes on the production of clinical letters.

’Work will also be commissioned to understand the impact on secretariat workload and how best to adopt best practice standards here,’ she added.