Health Minster Howard Quayle told Tynwald he hoped the waiting time for pain management treatment could be cut from years to months.
He said that the total number of referrals for pain management services since early this year stood at 416 and if his department were to do nothing the waiting time for a routine appointment would be around three and half years.
Urgent cases, however, are being seen as soon as possible.
Michael MHK Alfred Cannan said: ‘Three and a half years for people waiting for pain management seems to me to be ludicrous.’
But the Minister said some ‘very real and practical’ solutions had recently been agreed that would target activity and enhance capacity.
Asked what the waiting list would go down to by next year, he replied: ‘Immediate excruciating pain is already dealt with at the next clinic so we are talking about routine appointments – I would hope we can get it down to months rather than years.’
Improvements were likely to begin before Christmas, he told the court.
Mr Quayle argued that the clinic had been a victim of its own success. The pain management services only began in 2011, when the hospital recruited a consultant anaesthetist with relevant skills to be able to provide a local specialist service.
Until that time, small numbers of patients were receiving the service off-island at Walton Hospital.
In 2011, it was thought demand for the service could be met with one specialised clinic per week. But over the past three years demand for the service has grown significantly. The waiting list had fallen from 455 to 416 in the last year and the waiting list for routine appointments was now about two and a half years. Clearly this is a very high caseload for a specialist who can currently cater for 120 new patients a year in addition to ongoing cases, said Mr Quayle.