As of March 1, there were 2,012 patients waiting for an initial ENT appointment, according to Health and Social Care Minister Claire Christian.
Addressing Tynwald, Ms Christian said: “ENT services continue to place a strong focus on prioritising the most urgent and time critical cases, ensuring that patients requiring two week wait and cancer pathways are seen as quickly as possible.”
She added: “These extended waiting times reflect the long standing service pressures with median waiting times between 49 and 57 weeks since at least April 2023.”
Consultants
Capacity constraints have been linked to staff absence. Both ENT consultants have now returned to work, and a waiting list validation exercise began on April 13.
Ms Christian said that 3,302 patients are currently under the care of the ENT service, adding: “This reduction in the size of overall patient number under the care of the ENT service will free up outpatient appointments.”
Julie Edge asked whether Manx Care had a policy against hiring locum consultants to cover absences, but Ms Christian replied: “Unfortunately, I don’t have that operational information here today, but I can certainly request that from Manx Care.”
Ms Christian has committed to providing another update in one month.
Source: Manx News, 22 April 2026
