Hospice Isle of Man’s chief executive has said the charity will have to ‘ration’ its services.

Offering clinical care and a range of services to help people live well, Hospice’s financial reserves have fallen by more than half over the past three years.

Covid-19 and surges in running costs have been to blame.

It costs around £5.5 million to run each year but only receives a fraction of this, getting £900,000 from the Isle of Man Government.

Chief executive Anne Mills, who is leaving the charity at the end of the year, is appealing for donations.

She said: ‘Hospice isn’t bearing up.

‘The economic downturn has had a huge effect on us. We need to raise £5.5 million and we had 24 months reserves at that point, three years ago, and now we’re at about 14 months reserves.

‘This is a very serious situation that the board are looking at.’

Mrs Mills explained that following an independent review that Hospice paid for, Manx Care and the Department of Health and Social Care have agreed to give the organisation more funding ‘on a three-year incremental route’.

‘It should be £1.2m in April next year and the following year £1.5m,’ she said. ‘That’s nowhere near what we cost clinically.

‘We’re going to have to seriously think about rationing our services.

‘Our nurses get the same pay rises as Manx Care nurses get because we have to stay on a pay market rate, so every time they make a rise we have to make a rise too but we don’t get any extra money on our routine level to do that.

‘That’s not a good position to be in, you need a buffer. It means you’re standing still and not developing your services.’

She was speaking on Manx Radio.