Manx Care has failed to reach any of its monthly targets for operation theatre use over the past year.

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Minister Claire Christian has blamed the missed targets on increased patient and hospital cancellations.

She was responding to a written Tynwald question from Onchan MHK Julie Edge who asked the minister how many theatre sessions have been delivered since April 1, 2025 and how the monthly utilisation performed against Manx Care’s target.

Manx Care has set a target of 85% utilisation of theatre sessions but did not achieve that target in any month. The closest was in May last year when a target of 83.3% was reached while the lowest was in January with only 76.2%.

Theatre sessions are booked in four-hour blocks and the utilisation percentage measures the amount of time during the sessions when operations actually take place. For example, a 30-minute delay to an operation would reduce the utilisation by 12.5%.

A total of 968 theatre sessions were delivered during this period, within which 2,600 operations were performed, giving an average of 2.7 operations per 4-hour session.

Ms Christian said: ‘Monthly utilisation ranged from 76.2% to 84.6%, with an overall average of 80.6% across the reporting period. While significant theatre activity was delivered during this period, overall uncapped theatre utilisation remained below the current Mandate target of 85%.

‘Theatre utilisation has been on a downward trend from September 2025 to January 2026 due to a combination of factors including increased patient and hospital cancellations on the day and, during December and January, a reduction in utilisation due to the Christmas and New Year break, where traditionally theatres accommodate emergency and clinically urgent patients only.’

Patients can cancel operations if they are medically unfit which can sometimes happen on the day while hospitals can cancel operations due to bed availability or staffing issues.