Manx Care 'committed to finding hospice solution'
BBCManx Care has said it is working closely with Hospice Isle of Man to safeguard its end-of-life services as the charity faces significant financial challenges.
Chief executive Teresa Cope said it had been aware for several weeks that the island's sole hospice was reviewing its costs before it outlined potential cost-cutting plans on 13 March.
Cope described talks between the two organisations as "active and live discussions" which focused on protecting key services such as inpatient care and "hospice-at-home" support.
She stressed: "The protection of end-of-life and palliative care services for the island is of paramount importance."
The hospice said it needed to save about £750,000 a year to keep up with rising costs following six years of sustained financial deficit.
Cope said discussions were centred on ensuring essential care remained unaffected, while considering how some non-core services might be delivered differently.
She said services such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy - while aligned with end-of-life care - were not part of the hospice's core provision.
"If finances are challenged, those would be the areas where we would seek to find a solution," she said.
That could include Manx Care taking on some responsibilities, although Cope stressed plans were still being developed.
'No disruption'
Manx Care has itself overspent on its budget annually since its inception in 2021.
Despite this, Cope made assurances that it would support the hospice to continue services.
"I've made that commitment… to play [our] part in making sure that there is no disruption for patients and service users and their families," she said.
A full review of palliative and end-of-life care commissioning had already been planned for the 2026-27 financial year, she said.
The hospice is to receive about £1.8m in government funding for the 2026-27 financial year.
In the last three years, funding had increased by between £350,000 and £400,000 annually, Cope explained.
And while Manx Care funded 24% of the hospice's total income, Cope said an upcoming review would look at the "totality" of hospice costs to determine what funding was needed in the long term.
She admitted 24% was low compared with 44% in Jersey and an average of 36% across the UK.
Hospice CEO Fiona Hatton said: "If we could get to the point where we are comparable with the UK - which sits at about 36% - I'm confident then, at least for the next couple of years, [we] would absolutely be able to raise the remainder."
She added that while staff were being offered voluntary redundancy, until they had a clearer idea of who might take that option, the level of service cuts was still unknown.
But she reassured people that "this isn't hospice in crisis" and there would be no cuts to the number of beds available.
She said: "We have worked this around preserving the beds that we have here in our inpatient unit.
"We really want to keep those things very, very secure and protected for the public... we're not going to change that."
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