The DHSS is considering its options following the announcement a ?2 security charge is to be imposed on all passengers using Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The Manx Government pays for 6,000 patients a year to fly to Merseyside for specialist treatment, and faces the possibility of having to find an extra ?12,000 per annum.
The airport says the charge is needed to cover increasing security costs, although EasyJet, which doesn't fly to the Isle of Man, says these are already covered in fares.
Edward Oldham reports:
It's understood the charge hasn't yet come in, despite being scheduled for introduction on Monday.
And there was an angry reaction from taxi drivers, when it was suggested passengers should pay a pound just to enter the area where they could hail a cab.
The DHSS says it will give more information after it has clarified exactly what is happening, but is concerned at the possibility of patients, some of them in wheelchairs, having to pay coins into tube station type ticket machines.
It also says the administrative cost of refunding two pounds to a patient would be far greater than two pounds.
Liverpool airport is owned by Peel Holdings whose owner is Colby resident John Whittaker, the Island's only billionaire.
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