The number of patients waiting too long for follow-up endoscopy appointments was a catalyst in the decision to move services from Ramsey to Douglas according to Health and Social Care Minister Kate Beecroft MHK.

Mrs Beecroft was speaking in the wake of news that 157 patients needing follow-up appointments had waited longer than the recommended period.

’That’s certainly why we have acted so swiftly on this but I think in all probability it would have been done anyway because 33 weeks to wait for a routine endoscopy really is not acceptable,’ she said.

Asked if it was justifiable to take resources funded by the Friends of Ramsey Cottage Hospital to use at Noble’s instead, she said: ’If you live in Ramsey, you are still waiting 33 weeks so is it not better to have resources on one site and reduce that time to six weeks?

’There is also a large number of people who live in the Ramsey area who have appointments in Douglas anyway, it doesn’t just work by the geographical area.’

Figures for the first quarter of 2017 show that all targets set to improve healthcare waiting times have so far been missed, but virtually all have improved.

Isle of Man Newspapers has already reported improvements in cancer waiting times with 83 per cent of patients receiving treatment within 31 days of diagnosis. The target is 93 per cent so there has been a 13 per cent improvement.

Similarly, there was a nine per cent improvement in waiting times for emergency ambulance calls with 91 per cent of patients reached within 20 minutes, this is just four per cent short of the 95 per cent target.

However, it was a different story for emergency first responders, with only 58 per cent reaching a patient within the recommended eight minutes, a fall of one per cent.

Mrs Beecroft (pictured) said: ’You are going to miss the targets at first when you set high ones to achieve. The important thing is they are going in the right direction now and they are being measured and reported on so people can look them up on the net and if there’s a slippage the focus can be put on that area to turn that around quickly.

’The targets we have set are challenging ones.’

The targets were set as part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s Service Delivery Programme for 2016-17.