The island’s emergency out-of-hours health service is closing from midnight till 8am until further notice.

The Manx Emergency Doctors Service (MEDS) deals with patients at Noble’s Hospital when GPs’ surgeries are shut.

Manx Care, the body that runs the health service on a day-to-day basis, said the decision to close the service between these hours was not taken lightly. It was due to sickness within the MEDS team.

There will be an answerphone message signposting callers, and the MEDS management team continues to work with other services to ensure safe continuity of patient care, Manx Care said.

MEDS was also forced to close at short notice last night (December 11-12) for the same reason, but calls received last night were diverted to the hospital switchboard.

Contacts to the service during the night have been assessed, and these did not directly impact other services.

A MEDS spokesman said: ‘If you believe that the reason you are calling MEDS cannot wait until when your GP opens in the morning, please make your way to the emergency department.

‘If you think that you have a life-threatening emergency, you should always call 999. This service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.’