Tynwald has approved £15.3m of extra funds to shore up Manx Care’s overspend.

But five MHKs and one MLC voted against the bail-out to balance the books for 2024-25.

Manx Care is already forecasting a £2m overspend for the current year.

Health Minister Claire Christian said Manx Care continues to face significant financial challenges as a result, in part, of rising drug costs and often unpredictable high costs packages of care.

She said: ‘Further work is still required to achieve more efficiencies, const control and additional savings to balance financial sustainability and meet the allocated budget.

‘We must be honest about what can be delivered within the budget within the context of overall government finances.’

But a number of Tynwld members said they could not support the motion.

Onchan MHK Rob Callister said Manx Care could not continue to rely on what has ‘effectively become an open cheque book model’ since April 2021.

Kirstie Morphett MLC said she was ‘saddened’ not to be able to support the motion, but said there was no evidence that supplementary votes won’t continually to be repeated on an annual basis.

Former health minister Lawrie Hooper insisted that the health service was actually under-funded rather than continually overspent.

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Tim Glover said members were being asked to vote through £15.3m ‘as if it was perfectly acceptable and normal’. ‘It is not,’ he added. ‘Manx Care have to get their act together.’

‘I do question when we are going to say “enough is enough”.’

Douglas North MHK John Wannenburgh described the call for yet another bail-out as ‘nothing short of ridiculous’.

He said Manx Care has not been provided enough money to provide the services asked of it but suspected that it was not extracting the full value of every pound it has been given.