With the ongoing threat of heavy snowfall throughout this evening and overnight into tomorrow (Friday 10 March 2023), we’d like to provide you with an update on the working arrangement that we have put in place across our services. This is based on what we know now, and may well change as weather conditions progress.
Appointments and services tomorrow
If you have a hospital appointment booked for tomorrow afternoon (10 March 2023), this is due to go ahead as planned. However, all face to face outpatient appointments planned for tomorrow morning will be cancelled – please do not attend if this affects you. Some appointments may be able to be carried out over the phone instead – you will be contacted to confirm if your appointment will be conducted via telephone. If you are not contacted, please assume your morning appointment is cancelled and you will receive an invitation for a new appointment in due course.
Endoscopy appointments scheduled for the morning have been cancelled and will be rescheduled as soon as possible. At the moment, endoscopy appointments scheduled for the afternoon will go ahead. All of the patients affected by this are being contacted.
Please be aware that circumstances may change tomorrow depending on the weather and the road conditions, meaning that we may have to cancel afternoon appointments too. If necessary, this will be confirmed tomorrow morning. We would urge people to check Manx Care’s Facebook page (@ManxCare) for any updates, and share details with friends, relatives or neighbours who may not readily have access to social media.
Inpatient admissions are continuing as planned, with some individuals being admitted to Noble’s this afternoon to allow their urgent procedures to go ahead in the morning. Some urgent day cases have also been converted to inpatient admissions, with those patients also being admitted to Noble’s this afternoon ahead of planned surgery tomorrow.
The Blood Clinic at Noble’s will operate as planned tomorrow for anyone who can safely travel to their appointment. However, if you cannot travel safely, please rearrange this by calling the Manx Care Switchboard on 650000.
Other appointments planned for tomorrow morning that are deemed as urgent will continue to take place; you will be contacted if this applies to you. For example, this will apply to anyone who is due to attend any urgent diagnostic clinics on a two-week pathway, anyone due to receive oncology treatment, haemodialysis or other urgent therapy. If you have any concerns about a planned appointment tomorrow, please contact the unit where you are due to receive the treatment via telephone (direct dial or via Manx Care Switchboard on 650000).
Maternity appointments due to take place in the morning will be cancelled – you will be contacted if this affects you. Similarly, any women who are due to give birth will also be contacted if they have not already heard from the team. If any pregnant woman has any concerns or needs advice, they should not hesitate to contact our maternity unit on 650030 where our Midwives will be happy to help.
Those with invitations to routine breast screenings can still attend if they are invited for an afternoon screening, and they can safely travel to their appointment; however, those invited for the morning will be contacted and sent a new invitation in due course. Please do not attend if you were invited for a morning routine screening.
Any community-based appointments planned for the morning will be cancelled, with any urgent appointments to be moved to the afternoon – you will be contacted if this affects you.
All day services for Older People and those with Learning Disabilities will be closed. Anyone affected will be contacted.
If you have a GP appointment, this will go ahead unless you are contacted by your practice to change this, with appointments transferred to telephone appointments where possible. Please be reminded that the Manx Emergency Doctors Service (MEDS) is for issues that happen outside of core working hours. For anything routine, please contact your own GP practice as usual at the next available opportunity.
The Diabetes Centre will also be transferring planned appointments to telephone appointments where possible. Anyone impacted by this will be contacted.
Anyone with a Therapies outpatient appointment planned for the morning will also be contacted to rearrange this.
Mental Health services will be working remotely - if this affects you or your planned appointment, you will be contacted by your mental health practitioner. Brunswick Gardens and Next Step will be closed again tomorrow. The Crisis team and Manannan Court will be available via phone as normal.
The Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Service (MCISS) is picking up voicemails on 650735, and will respond to emails on MacmillanCancerInformationCentre.Nobles@gov.im.
The Manx Care Advice and Liaison Service (MCALS) are picking up voicemails, and will respond to emails.
Urgent and emergency care tomorrow
If you do need to attend a Manx Care site, please take great care whilst travelling, and only travel if it is safe for you to do so. We continue to urge people to access urgent care normally if they need it, for example calling 999 for an Ambulance in the event of an emergency or life-threatening situation. The Noble’s Emergency Department will remain open 24 hours a day.
If you are based in the North, please attend Ramsey’s Minor Injuries and Illnesses Unit (MIU) if you need to access urgent care. An Emergency Medicine Consultant will be based at MIU on Friday to support our experienced Nurse Practitioners there.
Please remember to do what you can to keep warm, and heed advice from colleagues in Isle of Man Constabulary and other Government agencies with regard to essential and non-essential travel. If you have any elderly or vulnerable family, friends or neighbours, please check on them and make sure they are safe and have access to food or other essential items. If you do go out in the snow, please take care - it may be more difficult to get to hospital if you need it at this time.
The decisions we have taken with regard to cancelling and rescheduling appointments have not been taken lightly. However, it’s essential that we maintain the safety of patients and colleagues travelling to and from Manx Care sites across the Island during this period of poor weather. Please continue to stay safe.
