Covid: Hospital capacity to be reviewed daily before TT races

Capacity at Noble's Hospital will be assessed each day before racing at this year's TT races can go ahead, the health minister has said.

Lawrie Hooper said if capacity was stretched on any given day, the racing would not take place.

Due to the creation of a dedicated Covid ward, the number of beds available for orthopaedic trauma patients has been reduced.

The June races will be first since 2019, because of the pandemic.

Mr Hooper said although two wards were usually kept free for dealing with trauma patients capacity was reduced from 31 beds to just 16.

More staff would also be drafted in to help cope with the possibility of a rise in admissions, he said.

All elective orthopaedic surgery would also be cancelled during the period as was the case in previous years, he added.

Thousands of visitors are expected to return to the island for the 2022 TT races, which take place between 28 May and 11 June.

Mr Hooper said general admissions during the period "don't change much compared to what you see the rest of the summer months", but the hospital did tend to see "an uptick in particular types of admissions", including trauma patients.

However, this year the health service had "Covid layered on top of that" so Manx Care would be "dealing with higher rates of staff absence and potential Covid admissions as well", he said.

Mr Hooper said discussions would take place between the health care provider and TT organisers prior to racing each day and see if the hospital could cope with new admissions before a final decision was made.

However, he said the hospital had coped with the races for a "long time", and would continue to do so.

Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]