A former health service employee has criticised Manx Care’s plan to reduce waiting lists across nine clinical specialities.

The retired nurse - who has asked to remain anonymous - stated that the plan was welcomed, but was only a short term fix.

As the Courier reported last week, Manx Care is to use the services of two UK-based external companies - Medefer and 18-Week Support - to conduct around 12,500 virtual outpatient consultations and inpatient procedures between September 2021 and March 2022.

The Treasury is paying £1.86m for it.

The backlog in waiting lists is a long-standing issue in the island, made worse by Covid-19.

Medefer will focus on the provision of around 10,000 appointments across the specialities of orthopaedics, ENT (ear, nose and throat), gastroenterology, cardiology, respiratory medicine, pain management and neurology.

Meanwhile, 18-Week Support utilises a hospital’s surplus theatre capacity to deliver surgical procedures across a weekend period, and provides this service across a large number of UK NHS Trusts.

A full clinical team from the company - including consultants, surgeons, nurses and theatre practitioners - will travel to the island to conduct around 2,500 endoscopy and cataract procedures at Noble’s.

Manx Care stated that this will not impact on Manx Care’s core workforce, which is already working to capacity.

Both Medefer and 18-Week Support are included in the UK’s NHS inspection regime.

Consultants from both companies will work with Manx Care’s consultants to ensure patients receive a joined-up care pathway, with support available by island-based teams as needed.

Manx Care’s chief executive officer, Teresa Cope, said: ’Addressing the long-standing waiting list challenge across our health and care service is a priority for Manx Care. It’s unacceptable that people are having to wait as long as they are for consultations and treatment.

’Utilising the services of Medefer and 18-Week Support will allow us to focus on reducing our waiting lists across nine clinical specialisms whilst implementing the changes we need to deliver that will allow us to provide a long-term, sustainable service here on-island.’

The retired nurse who spoke to the Manx Independent argued these plans were not sustainable as the core issues in the island’s healthcare service were not being tackled at their core.

He said: ’The government is continually spending bad money after bad money and we are paying for it.’

He raised several issues within the Manx Care system, including various criticisms of locums in the island.

He accused two locums of being on-call ’for about £1,000 per day’ but rather than being available to treat patients, they remain ’at home and tell the patients by phone to return the next day and attend their normal clinic.’

He also stated that in the Isle of Man: ’A consultant only does one to three, 20 minute procedures per session, which across would be laughable as they do 10 to 12 per session’ and that ’staff with experience to enact positive change are ignored, not appreciated and their grading is deliberately kept below that of others.’

However, Ms Cope was positive about the proposed plans and their impact on the healthcare service here, saying: ’The Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the pressure on waiting lists over the last 17 months, and the delivery of health and social care services more broadly.

’Like the UK NHS, which is investing over £5 billion into the recovery of health and care services following the pandemic, Manx Care has secured funding to address a significant proportion of our waiting list backlog which will be targeted at those who have been waiting the longest time for their outpatient appointment or procedure.’