Manx Care cut-backs for £12m saving scheme

Manx Care has announced it's scaling back some services to save an additional £5m to its £12m objective.

Saving schemes were signed off in a September board meeting, and include pausing non-mandatory training for staff, closure of the Ramsey Cottage Hospital at weekends, closure of the Mental Health Recovery College and withdrawl of out-of-hours adult social work.

Other services axed are the pilot Kooth and Qwell mental health schemes, non-clinical programmes, non-essential recruitment and elective procedures.

It's part of a wider plan to save £12m across the organisation, reduced from the original £19m outlined in its cost improvement programme.

Manx Care also incurred additional costs of £9m this year, driven by monthly spend rate costs of off-Island care, the impact of high-cost care packages for individuals, and the increase in drug costs.