Targets and waiting times for hospital appointments and the ambulance service have been published by the government today.

There is a mixed picture of results.

The results are from the quarter of October to December last year and compared with those from the quarter before.

For the target of ’having 75 per cent of life threatening 999 calls attended within eight minutes by an emergency responder’, the current performance is 59 per cent, a 3 per cent improvement on the quarter before.

But in the target of ’95 per cent of life-threatening 999 calls being attened by a crewed ambulance within 20 minutes, the performance was 82 per cent, which was 2 per cent worse.

The best result was the target of having ’93 per cent of patients referred to hospital within suspected seen within two weeks was 70 per cent, up 13 per cent.

The waiting time for the percentage of patients waiing longer than six months to have their operation or procedure following their outpatient appointment was 35 per cent. That was 1 per cent worse than in the previous quarter.

The results are against criteria that the health service has set for itself, so many patients might take them with a pinch of salt.

The Department of Health and Social Care made a commitment to review NHS waiting times and targets in the UK, establish Manx targets, and then monitor and publish performance data, as part of its 2016/17 Service Delivery Plan, the first phase of delivering its five-year strategy.

Minister for Health and Social Care Kate Beecroft MHK said: ’This is a watershed moment for health services in the Isle of Man. For the first time the department is making waiting times readily available and we will update the figures four times a year. In addition we have introduced targets against which the department’s performance can be measured.

’I want people who are waiting for both outpatient and inpatient appointments to know how long they may have to wait, although times can vary depending on how urgent a referral is.

’The department is being completely open and transparent about waiting times. We are already doing well in some areas, for example: children needing ear, nose or throat surgery are all treated within six months; and the number of people with suspected cancer being seen within two weeks has improved considerably.

’It is clear that we need to do better in some other specialty areas, and the department is examining ways it can reduce waiting times to make sure people are seen more quickly.

’This has to be achieved, however, in very challenging financial circumstances, with the department needing to reduce costs by £10 million in the current financial year just to come in on budget.’

The DHSC plans to publish additional waiting time information and targets in the coming months to include areas such as diagnostic tests and mental health services.

The aim is to publish data around six weeks after the end of each financial quarter, with the next update due in May 2017.

Future updates will provide details of why particular waiting times have improved or worsened, as well as details on initiatives being undertaken to reduce waiting times.

Full details can be found online at www.gov.im/waitingtimes.