Manx Care chief executive Teresa Cope outlines measures to contain a projected £15m overspend including suspension of off-island elective surgery.
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00:00So these measures are around ManxCare working much more closely with our tertiary providers
00:06in the North West. We have asked them to pause routine activity for two months in order to help
00:16the overall financial position of ManxCare. Patients who require cancer care, urgent care
00:23and time-critical outpatient appointments and surgeries will still have those appointments
00:29in the North West and if anyone has been affected by those and feels they shouldn't have had their
00:37appointment cancelled, please do get in touch with us via MCALS and we can work with that provider.
00:42Now I think you were saying there's affecting about 60 patients?
00:45Potentially up to 60 patients. It must be a very worrying time for these patients.
00:49Yes I'm sure it is very worrying and I apologise that this information has not been shared sooner
00:57and in a more planned way. We've had to work at pace in order to try and achieve some of these
01:05savings at relatively short notice following a decision by the ManxCare board in January.
01:12What we're hoping to do is work with those tertiary providers and say actually if care
01:18can be delivered on island or patients can be repatriated back for their care here,
01:24then we want to take that opportunity because that potentially is better for the individual
01:30plus it also saves some costs. It is a temporary measure just for those eight-week period and
01:36all those patients who are affected during February and March will be rescheduled by
01:42those providers in April. Deferring these procedures doesn't actually save any money
01:47in the long run does it? It doesn't save in the long run but it does provide a short-term solution
01:56for us to achieve our financial control total which we have agreed with government.
02:01And that total is what? It's £15 million.
02:04So by doing these measures you will still have a £15 million overspend?
02:10Yes, yes. With regards to on-island surgery and outpatient appointments,
02:19we have heard today at 10.30 this morning that government have supported us to
02:26incur additional spend in order for us to be able to reinstate those outpatient appointments
02:33and procedures and operations which would ordinarily wouldn't have been scheduled
02:39during February and March. Again, cancer care, urgent care and time-critical surgery
02:48and outpatient appointments would still be going ahead and wouldn't be affected by these changes
02:54but this new information today is allowing us to reschedule those outpatient appointments so
03:01again our teams will be getting in touch with patients to put those back in place.
03:06We can't keep going on like this can we? There needs to be a new approach.
03:10There does need to be a new approach and in order to get that complete alignment between
03:18the services ManxCare are being asked to provide and the budget that we have in which to do that
03:24and to not overspend then we're doing a substantial amount of planning by the creation of a new
03:31mandate and operating plan which will be much more explicit about what we can deliver within
03:38our financial budget and where there may need to be changes. We are keen to ensure that we are
03:45driving efficiency and productivity where we can but also our services do need to modernise
03:53in order to make sure they are financially and clinically sustainable for the future.
03:58So there is likely to be a significant amount of change announced as we move into the next
04:06financial year which is going to be an incredibly challenging financial year for ManxCare and with
04:14some significant changes needing to be made in order for that to be achieved. As we
04:21consider the increased demand on healthcare and the increasing costs of healthcare it is really
04:28important we do everything we can to understand that spend and plan those services more meticulously
04:36in order to make sure we have the budget in order to do so. Thank you very much.