Noble’s Hospital currently has under half of the number of anaesthetists it has positions for, according to Manx Care.

Currently there are only eight working in the Braddan hospital.

In a statement Manx Care said: ’We currently have eight anaesthetists, and 17 anaesthetist positions in total.

’We have been proactively trying to recruit into this area for the last 18 months, but unfortunately this continues to prove incredibly challenging given the nationwide shortage of anaesthetists across the UK.

’We’re carrying a large number of consultant and nurse vacancies across the board and we’ve been proactively trying to recruit into these too for a considerable period of time - and it remains a key focus for us.

’The significant staff shortages across the UK subsequently impacts Manx Care’s ability to recruit given that we’re competing against a large number of NHS Trusts for a small number of candidates.’

The statement explained what Manx Care is doing to combat the issue.

’We’ve been working with the British Medical Journal’s recruitment team on targeted recruitment initiatives for GPs and hospital doctors, working with the Locate.im team from the Department for Enterprise to run focused recruitment campaigns targeting people working across different clinical specialties, targeting people across our own professional networks, and are working with specialist agencies to try and fill Manx Care’s vacancies.’

The shortages come as an investigation is being conducted into an ’incident’ earlier this year which happened at the hospital, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

It said in a statement it said: ’Given that the outcome of the investigation is yet to be determined it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.’

The government has since refused to say if there have been any suspensions of anaesthetists at Noble’s Hospital.

Recently a public board meeting was held on Tuesday, September 28 where staff shortages and nurse recruitment were discussed.

It was established that Manx Care had a large number of permanent nurse vacancies as well as a high number of general consultant and permanent anaesthetist vacancies which the service ’has been carrying for some time’.

The Examiner reported on October 12 that some elective surgeries were cancelled at Noble’s Hospital due to ’bed pressures’ and ’workforce challenges’.

Manx Care admitted it was facing staffing shortages for its elective programme.

According to a statement from the organisation, this wasn’t exclusive to the Isle of Man but NHS Trusts across the UK have faced similar problems.

It added: ’We’re facing a number of staffing challenges for our elective programme in terms of the number of nurses needed to deliver safe levels of post-operative care for patients and anaesthetists to support those operations as a result of long-term vacancies.’

Urgent care has been prioritised over the elective programme ’when required’.