No extra cash was provided to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to fund the new pay deal for doctors, the Treasury minister has confirmed.

At this week’s House of Keys sitting, Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse asked Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson what role he played in pay negotiations with doctors and whether additional funding for the DHSC has been considered in the last six months to deal with this.

The British Medical Association (BMA) had planned a two-day strike – the first industrial action by doctors in the island’s history – after reaching a stalemate in negotiations.

However, last week doctors voted to accept Manx Care’s 11th hour pay offer which resulted in planned strike action being postponed.

Senior doctors will receive an 8% pay rise backdated to April 1, 2023, for the previous year. For 2024/25, they will also receive an 8% increase, with 6% backdated to April 1, 2024, and the remaining 2% taking effect from February 1, 2025.

Dr Allinson confirmed he had no role in the negotiations and also said no extra funds had been provided by his department.

He said: ‘The DHSC Minister has provided updates to members and how the increase is to be met within the existing departmental budget.

‘Staff pay has been highlighted as one of the key cost pressures by the department and Manx Care but there have been no changes to the department’s budget over the last six months in anticipation of any eventual settlement.’

When asked by Mr Moorhouse if the pay rise would lead to longer term budget pressures Dr Allinson revealed there had been a meeting between Treasury, the DHSC and Manx Care last week to discuss budgetary pressures, including staff pay.

Dr Allinson confirmed there had been no requests for extra funding from the DHSC in relation to the pay increase for doctors with cash coming from a DHSC underspend and a contingency fund within the department.