Health Minister Lawrie Hooper has said any orthopaedic trauma sustained during the TT races will be treated on one ward instead of the usual two, as allocated in previous events.

This was in response to a question posed by Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Tim Glover in the House of Keys this week when he asked what plans are being put in place to ensure there is sufficient hospital capacity for the TT.

‘In previous TT events, orthopaedic trauma has been accommodated on ward 11 which is the orthopaedic trauma ward and ward 12, the elective orthopaedic ward providing 31 beds in total,’ he said.

‘However, currently ward 12 is allocated as the Covid escalation ward which will restrict capacity to only 16 beds on ward 11.

‘Should trauma demand exceed the capacity within ward 11, trauma cases will be accommodated on other surgical wards within the hospital, however this may impact on other surgical activity.’

Additional staff are being recruited in preparation for the island-wide racing event but the hospital is currently facing 19.7% staff vacancies.

The minister added: ‘One effect of the pandemic is Manx Care vacancies have risen to 19.7% of the workforce due to increased difficulty being able to recruit substantive clinical support staff.

‘Whilst Noble’s Hospital has always relied on additional staff to add to our workforce during the TT this reliance will increase significantly during 2022 so that we can cope with the additional demand.

‘Additional staff being recruited include four orthopaedic surgeons, four emergency department doctors, six emergency department nurses and eight paramedics.’

Mr Hooper said that the Hospital TT Planning Group will ensure issues around staffing are being planned for and hospital status can be assessed.