IOM DHSC & MANX CARE

[Albert Tatlock]

5 hours ago, WTF said:

was he a good doctor ?

A lot of tax payers are coughing...mainly as he has us all by the balls.

[Harry Lamb]

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

We do know there was a 30% increase in the number of civil servants employed by DHSC/Manx Care between March 2016 and March 2023 - and mostly since the creation of Manx Care.  I analysed the figures over a year ago earlier in this topic and there's a link to the WQ it was based on.  I don't think much of that will be due to renaming of roles, because much of that will have predated that period and the figures won't include anyone on nursing or medical pay scales.

So an increase in the number of civil servants, but no evidence of 'non-essential medical staff'. Do MC publish details of numbers involved in each part of the organization? I wonder where these extra people are, apart from a few in comms - certainly not sorting out appointments, or pharmacy, or the labs.

[FANDL]

1 hour ago, Blade Runner said:

If that is true, then god help you lot.............

You wont need a bigger boat you will need a bigger Island, The Island of Ireland to take over maybe?

We are clearly such a rich island that based on last years IOM VISA applications we can consciously make the decision to forgo 4,451 x either £3,105 or £5,175 over a 3 or 5 year period (more for applicants with families) paid as a direct NHS levy because we’re more interested in VISA schemes and bringing new residents than we are in Manx people. Assuming a three year VISA 4,451 applicants would have generated £14M in charges our NHS would have got. If five year that’s just over £23M.

But instead to raise money for Manx Care we decided to tax Manx people earning £25K a year at a 22% higher rate of tax instead. 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Andy Onchan said:

MC have said that delaying elective operations will save £220K. How do they (or even we) know that if the costs for that are included with tertiary and other costs? On the basis that it's a nice round number would suggest they don't really know.

As has been said, £220k is a spit in the ocean compared to the shortfall/overspend of millions.

If they can't or won't separate the costs for different types of services to justify their decisions then they deserve every bit of crap thrown at them.

Manx Radio ran a story on the topic on Monday afternoon and later amended it to include a statement from Manx Care[1].  It doesn't really make much sense:

"In order to bring Manx Care into balance this financial year there is a need to focus on specific areas where spend can be reduced with immediate effect such as bank and agency expenditure, freezing of vacancies, purchasing of goods and services, off island commissioning etc. 

"As part of Manx Care’s financial recovery plan we have taken the decision to reduce the number of elective theatre lists by 5.5 lists per week for up to a maximum of six months in order to reduce expenditure on bank theatre and anaesthetic staff which are currently required due to a number of vacancies within both the theatre and anaesthetic teams.

"These reductions will be within ENT, general surgery and gynaecology. 

"Theatres and anaesthesia on average have been spending £84k per month on bank staff costs in the first four months of 24/25, although this has been reducing in both areas since August thanks to the appointment of new permanent staff, a trend that is likely to continue throughout the year. 

"Modelling has taken place within ENT, gynaecology and general surgery which indicates that based on the current waiting list position, the reductions in weekly list allocation will not cause those specialties to exceed the sustainable waiting list size.

"This is the number of people on the waiting list to maintain an 18 week wait between being added to the waiting list and being admitted for surgery.

"This approach means that the efforts that went into funding and delivering recovery and restoration phases 1 and 2 will not be wasted as the objective of the programme was to get waiting lists to the sustainable waiting list size on completion of the programme.

"In addition, after reviewing theatre productivity data, it has been identified that there are opportunities to improve theatre utilisation, particularly within general surgery and gynaecology, i.e. using the remaining lists more efficiently so that they can operate on the same number of patients in a reduced number of lists, thereby reducing the actual impact on patients.

"The weekly theatre planning meeting is leading on improving theatre utilisation by challenging surgeons to make the best use of the theatre list time allocated to them. 

"Manx Care has recently been successful in recruiting substantive anaesthetic and theatre staff who are planning to join Noble’s Hospital over the next few months.

"Appointing new substantive staff members to the organisation is a positive development.  

"Therefore as the requirement for additional bank cover reduces with the new permanent staff coming into post, the need to maintain these theatre lists reductions will be regularly reviewed as the opportunity to save will diminish and theatre lists will be reinstated accordingly.

"In the meantime the theatre team is taking a flexible approach to planning these reductions which will ensure that any urgent or cancer cases can be accommodated and any delays avoided wherever possible. 

"Manx Care appreciates that taking this action is not ideal but is committed to minimise the impact on patients, restoring the theatre lists as soon as possible and meeting the requirement of our financial recovery plan."

Agency staff can be horrendously expensive, but bank staff tend to be less so and replacing them may not make big savings if you include other employment costs.  So it doesn't make much sense.

 

[1]  Manx Radio increasingly do this, which is good in some ways, but they don't put a date or time on the addition which is most unprofessional and they usually don't 'boost' the story, so the reader has no way of knowing that there's more to a story they may have already read.

Edited Wednesday at 03:41 PM by Roger Mexico
Add link

[Sceptic]

33 minutes ago, FANDL said:

Assuming a three year VISA 4,451 applicants would have generated £14M in charges our NHS would have got. If five year that’s just over £23M.

The problem sitting behind this is have you seen 4,000 people move here in the last year? Have 4,000 new flats been rented or have 4,000 additional houses been bought by overseas nationals since the start of 2023? Have any of these new residents been documented anywhere in official statistics as if we have seen 4,000 overseas people move here in the last 18 months surely they’d be spending on housing and in the shops and restaurants? 

The whole immigration piece is an out and out scam as the King Gaming situation proves. They don’t apply the IHC as most of the people aren’t even here, and never will be here, so they don’t make them pay a fee for nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see IOM government officers behind some of it either. 

[cissolt]

22 minutes ago, Sceptic said:

The problem sitting behind this is have you seen 4,000 people move here in the last year? Have 4,000 new flats been rented or have 4,000 additional houses been bought by overseas nationals since the start of 2023? Have any of these new residents been documented anywhere in official statistics as if we have seen 4,000 overseas people move here in the last 18 months surely they’d be spending on housing and in the shops and restaurants? 

The whole immigration piece is an out and out scam as the King Gaming situation proves. They don’t apply the IHC as most of the people aren’t even here, and never will be here, so they don’t make them pay a fee for nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see IOM government officers behind some of it either. 

Net figure for migration was about 350 last year

[Andy Onchan]

1 hour ago, Harry Lamb said:

So an increase in the number of civil servants, but no evidence of 'non-essential medical staff'. Do MC publish details of numbers involved in each part of the organization? I wonder where these extra people are, apart from a few in comms - certainly not sorting out appointments, or pharmacy, or the labs.

On the subject of appointments - I attended an "ology" outpatients department recently and there writ large was the usual report on the notice board of the number of appointments missed or DNAs as they prefer to call them. On making my way out I asked one of the staff if they knew the reasons why so many people were DNAs. No idea was the reply.

Which got me to wondering who, if anyone, has ever done the sensible thing and contacted the DNAs to ask why they didn't attend? 

[Jarndyce]

4 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

We do know there was a 30% increase in the number of civil servants employed by DHSC/Manx Care between March 2016 and March 2023 - and mostly since the creation of Manx Care.

Presumably the duplication of functions that has been mentioned on this very thread many times.

[Sceptic]

18 minutes ago, cissolt said:

Net figure for migration was about 350 last year

Exactly so where do 4,000 overseas Visa applicants figure in that? 4,000 renting additional accomodation in the last 18 months would have sent the rental market even more interstellar than it is already. They simply aren’t here and we know they aren’t here which is presumably why we aren't charging them for NHS services? The passport office surely must be able to see that 500 of them are probably all registered at the same 6 addresses?  I agree though we should be charging them all exactly what the UK is charging them whether they’re here or not. Why does the IOM always give those who aren’t locals all the freebies that our taxes pay for? 

[Roger Mexico]

9 minutes ago, Jarndyce said:

Presumably the duplication of functions that has been mentioned on this very thread many times.

To some extent.  But the increase was over 120 and there's only about 40 in DHSC so duplicating all that would still leave over 80.  So there must be other reasons as well.

Those figures are also 18 months old, so there may well have been more added since.  For example I think the 'transformation team' have been moved from the Cabinet Office to Manx Care in that period (and the 2016 DHSC figure will include Public Health since moved the other way).  And there's all these extra things like the Wellness Centres. 

[mad_manx]

49 minutes ago, Sceptic said:

Exactly so where do 4,000 overseas Visa applicants figure in that? 4,000 renting additional accomodation in the last 18 months would have sent the rental market even more interstellar than it is already. They simply aren’t here and we know they aren’t here which is presumably why we aren't charging them for NHS services? The passport office surely must be able to see that 500 of them are probably all registered at the same 6 addresses?  I agree though we should be charging them all exactly what the UK is charging them whether they’re here or not. Why does the IOM always give those who aren’t locals all the freebies that our taxes pay for? 

Are  the numbers based on the total number of visa applications or the number of people applying  to move here .

I wonder if the  4451 visa applications includes tourist visa's as well ?.

South African passport holders for example need a visa to visit the UK and we have a fairly large population  here.

Was over 10% of the population from what I remember..

Edited Wednesday at 05:51 PM by mad_manx

[Sceptic]

18 minutes ago, mad_manx said:

Are  the numbers based on the total number of visa applications or the number of people applying  to move here .

I wonder if the  4451 visa applications includes tourist visa's as well ?.

South African passport holders for example need a visa to visit the UK and we have a fairly large population  here.

Was over 10% of the population from what I remember..

I was just going by the BBC link FANDL posted which looks a bit open to interpretation but Manx Radio seems to say over 4,000 last year up from 856 six years ago. You’d have noticed 4,000 people here the whole thing is just a scam. 

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/number-of-visa-applications-increases-five-times-in-six-years/

[cissolt]

40 minutes ago, Sceptic said:

I was just going by the BBC link FANDL posted which looks a bit open to interpretation but Manx Radio seems to say over 4,000 last year up from 856 six years ago. You’d have noticed 4,000 people here the whole thing is just a scam. 

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/number-of-visa-applications-increases-five-times-in-six-years/

It does appear to be a scam.  Is the aim to boost Alfs numbers without actually increasing the population?

https://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-mans-population-grew-by-just-461-people-in-two-years-as-breakdown-revealed-711656

[Jarndyce]

Medics not pulling any punches on MR:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/plans-to-reduce-surgery-lists-will-exacerbate-waiting-lists/
 

They even helpfully pointed out four executive level vacancies (each with salaries >£150k p.a.) which could be frozen - saving MORE THAN DOUBLE the proposed cuts to theatre activity would save in the current FY.

Edited Thursday at 08:35 AM by Jarndyce
Clarity

[Auntie Depressant]

It’s good the medics are speaking up and offering an alternative strategy based on front line experience. I wonder if any of the multiple civil servants will be giving similar insights to saving money?