Private Healthcare on the Isle of Man

The Department of Health and Social Care asked you for your views of private healthcare provision in the Island.

We asked what would be important to you in choosing whether or not to make use of private healthcare and we asked those who had previously used private healthcare for their opinions of the care they received.

We received 432 responses, which included views from medical and nursing staff along with businesses and the general public. 69% of responses were from people who had previously used private healthcare and these were roughly evenly split between those who had used only Noble’s, those who had used a different provider, and those who had used both Noble’s and another provider.

Around 50% of all respondents said that they currently have private healthcare insurance and 89% said that they may consider private healthcare in the future.

For ranking the importance of items, the consultation employed a 5 point scale (with 1 representing “least important” and 5 representing “very important”). This enabled us to produce a summary figure for each of the items ranked by how important they are to you. For each item a score of “1” would indicate that an item is not at all important relative to other items and a score of “5” would mean that the item is extremely important. Here are the top 3 ranked items, together with their scores, for each of the main topics addressed in the consultation:-

Importance when considering private healthcare options

You said:

• Shorter waiting lists compared to NHS - 4.5
• Outcomes for patients and expertise in procedure type, low complication rates – 4.3
• Being able to select a specific consultant – 4.1

Importance when selecting a private consultant

You said:

• Flexibility of dates for consultation/procedures – 4.1
• Availability of clear information about a consultant’s professional experience– 4.0
• Consultant available for consultation in IOM - 3.9

Importance of facilities in an outpatient clinic

You said:

• Good parking availability – 4.0
• Receptionist always on duty – 3.7
• Drop-in blood clinic available – 3.4

Importance of inpatient facilities

You said:

• Staff to patient ratios – 4.3
• Flexibility and choice of dates - 4.1
• Food / menu choices – 3.6

Please see the full report for the complete analysis of responses to all questions. There are a number of ‘not answered’ responses to many of the questions in the consultation which many will be from users who have completed the consultation but are not or have not been past users of private healthcare and are therefore unable to comment on specific questions.

We would like to thank those that took the time to answer the consultation online or in writing. The consultation responses will be used to guide the design of a new model for private healthcare services people want to access on Island.

The Department of Health and Social Care continues to explore opportunities to partner with others to implement a new model for our private medical services. Further updates will be given by the Department in December 2019.