Manx Care: Don’t Take Risks on Thursday
The island’s health provider has said it simply can’t afford to offer nurses any more money
With nurses set to walk out on Thursday, Manx Care has outlined what services will be running and asked islanders to take care to minimise accidents.
The island’s health provider, which has recently laid bare the state of its finances, has said it simply can’t afford to offer nurses any more money, putting pressure on the gov to increase funding.
Certain services have been deemed as ‘essential’ by the RCN and will remain open as planned.
Manx Care said: ‘Members of the public are asked to take great care on Thursday, and to do what they can to minimise the chance of an accident occurring, in order to take pressure off the Emergency Department.’
These include inpatient services at both Noble’s and Ramsey and District Cottage Hospitals, the Emergency Department at Noble’s Hospital, the Jane Crookall Maternity Unit, in-patient Mental Health services provided at Manannan Court, some community-based services, Dialysis services and Critical Care provision, alongside maintenance of chemotherapy provision and emergency/trauma surgery.
Most outpatient services will close during strike periods.
Manx Care said: ‘Manx Care remains open to dialogue with RCN members. However, our options remain limited due to our financial constraints and having exhausted our funding envelope. All funding that has been received by the organisation to be used for pay awards has already been used to fund pay awards. Given the current financial position that Manx Care faces, making any further pay offer at this point is not possible and would be in breach of our financial regulations.
‘Manx Care is seeking support from DHSC to assist in resolving this matter. We wish to make it clear that we respect and support the decision by RCN members to take industrial action, and equally support the decision of any RCN member working for Manx Care to participate in strike action.’
The Emergency Department at Noble’s Hospital will continue to operate 24 hours a day, albeit this may be on reduced staffing levels. People should continue to attend the ED for urgent and emergency care as planned, but use an alternative service for advice and treatment for non-urgent matters. Alternatively, call 999 for an ambulance in the event of an emergency or life-threatening situation.
