Mrs Christian praised the staff at Noble’s saying that their primary aim was to deliver quality health care for all the people of the Isle of Man, in their customary efficient and professional manner.

In the House some time back, she had informed the members that the firm dealing with recruitment had at that time 60% of the additional staff required for the hospital already confirmed.

She told “The Diabetic” that she was pleased to say that the percentage by the time of the official opening had gone up to 99%.

The Minister was of the opinion that there will always be a need for caring and compassionate people to look after those in need of hospital services.

The new hospital was the epitome of excellence with its layout of spacious but smaller capacity wards, with accessibility to the nursing staff of all beds from their workstations. The new Noble’s has an increase in single rooms, and up to the minute technology.

Not to mention better working facilities, and with 7 operating theatres as opposed to 4 at Westmoreland Road.

The Minister told “The Diabetic” that in reality none of us could foretell the future, and though there would no doubt be continuous change in the way health care is delivered, this will be monitored by the DHSS.

Steps would be taken to ensure that wherever possible, and funds providing, the medical delivery on the Island would be kept abreast of any developments in the medical field.

She pointed out that it must be realised that these medical developments are always progressing at a very quick pace and it was not always possible to implement one system when in a very short period of time another more advanced came on stream.

However this did not mean that if the resources were available they would not be implemented.
Mrs Christian was most insistent that the new hospital will provide a fitting environment in which people will be cared for, and that the new