Patient waiting times palatine health centre

Summary

The requester asked for specific GP waiting times at Palatine Health Centre, challenging a reported island-wide average of 7.4 days. Manx Care responded that specific practice-level data is not held due to data aggregation limitations and announced an upcoming shift to a triage system.

Key Facts

• The 7.4-day waiting time figure is an average across all GP practices on the Isle of Man, not specific to Palatine.
• Manx Care does not hold data distinguishing between new problems and follow-up appointments.
• Waiting times can be extended if patients insist on seeing a specific doctor who is in high demand or absent.
• Palatine Health Centre will implement a Patient triage system via AccuRx around mid-January 2026.
• The new triage system will allow clinicians to decide urgency and allocation rather than admin staff.

Data Disclosed

• 7.4 days
• October 2025
• 4 weeks
• 8 December 2025
• 5 January 2026
• mid-January 2026
• 7 day intervals
• over a month

Exemptions Cited

• Information not held or cannot be found after taking reasonable steps

Original Request

Dear ManxCare I note the Health Minister made a statement in October 2025, claiming GP waiting appointment times are 7.4 days. I have waited 4 weeks for a doctors appointment at Palatine to be told yesterday a day before my appointment it's been cancelled and to make another one . Clearly the Health Minister is misleading the public as I imagine I'll be waiting more weeks to see a GP. As such please provide the current waiting times to see a GP at palatine health centre and the actual waiting times at present, not the fabricated ones that have been released in the press.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Manx Care Noble’s Hospital, Strang Braddan, Isle of Man IM4 4R (01624) 650 000

Our ref: 5153557 5 January 2026

Dear

We write further to your request, received 8 December 2025, which states:

"Dear ManxCare

I note the Health Minister made a statement in October 2025, claiming GP waiting appointment times are 7.4 days.

I have waited 4 weeks for a doctor’s appointment at Palatine to be told yesterday a day before my appointment it's been cancelled and to make another one.

Clearly the Health Minister is misleading the public as I imagine I’ll be waiting more weeks to see a GP.

As such please provide the current waiting times to see a GP at palatine health centre and the actual waiting times at present, not the fabricated ones that have been released in the press.”

Response
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. The 7.4 days is an average across all GP practices on the island, not each specific practice. Not all information can be captured as:
1. Patients may have to wait several days to be given an appointment, however any data captured can only reflect the time between the booking being made and the appointment. There is no way to capture anything prior to that point.
2. Any data captured is for all appointments at the GP surgery – and obviously this includes both new problems and follow ups. Again there is no way to separate these two in primary care data & often a visit for, say blood pressure follow up, may also cover a new problem as well. However, it is clear there are peaks at 7 day intervals as people are told to come back in a week, fortnight or month.

1. The booked to slot times are aggregated across all appointments irrespective of clinician type whereas, reasonably, the public often mean waiting time to see a doctor.

2. If patients’ have a preference for a particular doctor wait times may be extended if they decline to see an alternative doctor especially if the requested doctor is in demand or off for any reason. Recently Palatine had one doctor off and this specific doctor tends to have all their pre-bookable appointments filled for over a month in advance, which means there is a longer wait to be re- booked in to see them.

3. We are changing the way appointments will be allocated from around mid- January 2026, to a Patient triage system via AccuRx. This has been discussed with the contracts team, who were on-board with this and are keen to see if this improves patient access.

4. The system will mean patients will be asked a set of questions, either online or by phoning the surgery, which will go through to the ‘triage Clinician’ who will decide how urgent and who the patient will be booked with – this in turn takes any decision making away from the admin team.

5. We are aware that this system may initially appear a back step to patients however, we believe that this will give fairer access to all patients and that each request will dealt with according to their medical need. This should also mean that patients will be seen within a timeframe deemed appropriate by medical professionals.

6. We are hoping that this new way of working will in time will help patients realise that they don’t always need to be seen by a specific clinician and that our wider clinical team can deal with certain requests.

7. We do open some appointments on the day with our ANP/PA/ FY2/ GP trainees. As all our clinicians don’t work every day, the availability can differ.

Please quote the reference number 5153557 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

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If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely