Lawrie Hooper, Minister for Health and Social Care, has told a Liberal Vannin meeting that health and social care services in the island were under-funded.

Mr Hooper, who is also leader of the Liberal Vannin Party, told attendees that public expectations and demographic changes meant that the services were under-funded.

He also said that he had secured additional resources to help with reducing waiting times for hospital appointments and that Manx Care was operating within agreed budgets.

However, it has since been revealed that Manx Care has identified a £40m funding gap between what it is mandated to do and what cash is available.

The chief executive officer of Manx Care, Teresa Cope, said that 20% of front-line posts in the health body were currently vacant and using agency staff to provide essential services.

She said that this was financially draining and unsustainable, and outlined measures being taken to improve staff recruitment and retention levels.

Lee Clarke-Vorster, chair of the health services consultative committee, said that he had initially been sceptical about the establishment of Manx Care, but was now impressed with the way the organisation was responding to the challenges that it faced.

Maureen Cowbourne, chief executive officer of Age Concern, questioned that and said that the everyday experience of many elderly people was one of difficulty in accessing primary care and that GP practices needed to take into account their elderly patients and make it easier to get face-to-face appointments.

Questions from the audience echoed her points and the status of GP Practices as private companies was criticised, with welcome for a move to make GPs and their staff direct employees of Manx Care.

Annabel Ennett, head of services at Isle Listen, said that she was encouraged by recent partnership arrangements with Manx Care, but stressed that waiting times for young people to access mental health services are far too long.

There was also a call for more joined up government to help carers who have to juggle between working and the benefits system to provide enough income to continue their role.

The financing of Manx Care was criticised by some, with suggestions that taxpayers are not getting value for money and that money allocated for some projects was inadequately monitored and that GP Practices were being subsidised by Manx Care for little benefit.

Teresa Cope said that the additional funding was explicitly made to allow GPs and other health professionals in Group Practices to work more flexibly across Manx Care to help with waiting list backlogs.