Waiting times

We all care about our health and wellbeing. So when we worry that something might be wrong, it’s only natural that we want to be seen as quickly as possible by the right person.

We will all have the need for healthcare at some stage in our lives – whether it’s a vaccination as a baby or perhaps a hip replacement in older age – which means that demand for health services is high. To ensure fairness, services are prioritised based on the needs of patients, with the aim of providing care as quickly as possible to those who need it the most.

So, if you dial 999 with a life threatening emergency we aim for an immediate response anywhere on the Island; if you have a condition that needs investigating by a specialist at hospital, but which doesn’t pose an immediate risk to your health, you may have to wait a period of time for an appointment. 

Advances in healthcare and our standard of living mean that in the Isle of Man many people will now live into their 80s. This increase in life expectancy is a positive and significant achievement for our society, but as we live longer and as medical treatments advance, it is becoming more complicated and more expensive to look after people’s health.

Growing demand and finite resources pose significant challenges in meeting the public’s expectations for health and social care services, but Government is committed to improving care for the people of the Isle of Man as part of a broad five year strategy from 2016 - 2021. As part of this plan, during 2016/17, the Department of Health and Social Care committed to review UK waiting time targets, set appropriate Manx targets, and then monitor and publish performance data.  This links into ‘Delivering the Programme for Government’ which has a target to publish hospital waiting times by April 2017. These commitments have been delivered with the information on waiting times set out below.

About the data

The information provided outlines the targets the Department of Health and Social Care has set itself for responding to life threatening 999 calls, providing care in the Emergency Department, cancer referrals, and inpatient and outpatient hospital care. The number of measures will increase over time and work is being undertaken to make it easier to compare Isle of Man waiting times with those in England. The performance data will be updated four times a year.

The Department is continuing to improve its processes for the validation of waiting lists, so that it can be confident that the information it holds for health services provided locally is accurate.

You can read more about the targets.

Performance and waiting times as at 13 February 2020

The performance data below is for the period 1 October – 31 December 2019 (Quarter 3 2019/20) with the exception of the 31 and 62 day cancer targets which are a quarter further in areas (Quarter 2 2019/20). We aim to update waiting times within 6 weeks of the end of each financial quarter, with the next set of figures due to be published by mid May 2020.

* The reporting for outpatient waiting times has only included GP referred patients since the first publication.