Hospital bosses are confident that they can keep within budget this year.

Mike Quinn, director of hospital services, was giving evidence to the public accounts committee which is investigating overspending at Noble’s.

The DHSC has overspent by more than £30m over the last three years. In January this year, the department secured Tynwald approval for additional funding of up to £9.5m.

Asked by the committee chairman, Speaker Juan Watterson MHK, if he was hopeful that Noble’s will come in on budget this year, he replied: ’I’m sincerely hopeful that we will. I will always be optimistic.

’The worst thing that could happen is that we don’t know why or where we are overspending.

’A significant proportion of our overspend, over 80%, is in relation to workforce cost and that largely, entirely, is related to the size of our locum/agency bill and it is that which we’ve focused on reducing. We’ve some achievements in the previous financial year and we will continue to work on reducing that further.

’We set a challenge and we will deliver on that by the end of quarter two this year there will be no nursing agency across any of the medical or surgical wards across the hospital. That’s a significant change.

’We will continue to drive down our local agency bill in relation to doctors as we make more substantive appointments.’

Mr Quinn said that only in the last two weeks two new consultants had joined Noble’s on substantive appointments allowing the hospital to release the locum behind those two posts.

Mr Watterson said that was ’not to be sniffed at’ and that said the £2.6m savings already made in that area was to be commended.

Focus for much of Mr Quinn’s evidence was the issue of staffing.

Mr Quinn said relationships at Ramsey Cottage Hospital had ’vastly improved’ since he last gave evidence to the committee in December.

He said this was in part due to revised senior managements arrangements, with a new consultant-led model now in place supported by a dedicated associate specialist. An additional 10 beds have been opened at the cottage hospital, taking the total to 31, with extra nurses appointed.