Unanimous vote to fund overspend

Tynwald has unanimously approved an extra £9.9 million for the Department of Health and Social Care.

Minister Howard Quayle has asked for the extra money after telling the court that his department had spent well over its budget in providing its services in the year to 31 March 2016.

Noble's Hospital alone overspent by £10.7 million, government catering services overspent by £1.1 million last year and mental health services had gone £3.3 million over budget.

But Mr Quayle said some services had made savings, bringing the total overspend down.

Department of Health and Social Care member Michael Coleman MLC defended the deficit stating that some unforeseen events over the last year meant more money than expected had to be spent.

He said specialist services were driven by demand and couldn't always be foreseen and added just one case in mental health services was costing thousands of pounds each week.