Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Assurances despite overspend of £3.6m
HEALTH chiefs insisted today that patient care wouldn’t suffer — despite the service again going millions of pounds over budget.
A report delivered to NHS Tayside’s board revealed the health service spent £3.6 million more than it was meant to in the first four months of 2017/18.
In addition, Tayside is £1.3 million behind on where it should be in making efficiency savings.
The majority of overspend was on pay, as more than £2m extra was spent on nursing than the health board had expected.
The board admitted it was spending 17% more on private nursing staff than it was this time last year.
Spending on prescriptions was also £375,000 higher than expected in the Dundee city area. However, the total cumulative overspend was cushioned by smaller than expected spending in other areas and the use of a £1m contingency fund. The report comes just months after it was revealed NHS Tayside would have to save more than £200m from its budget in the next five years, and follows a similar overspend in 2016/17.
Lindsay Bedford, director of finance, said the service was working to ensure health care would be delivered safely while reducing spending.
He said: “NHS Tayside remains committed to a programme of redesign which will sustain the delivery of person-centred, safe and effective treatment and care for all our patients and their families now and into the future.”
Mr Bedford added: “NHS Tayside has a proactive approach to reducing reliance on agency cover.
“We are also working with the three health and social care partnerships on a number of initiatives to tackle prescribing costs. This includes working with GP practices to address variation in prescribing, the introduction of a new Tayside formulary for all prescribers and working with the public to reduce unused and wasted medicines.
“We are also working closely with our doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to identify areas where we can redesign services which will ensure our health services continue to be safe and sustainable for the future and respond to the needs of our communities.”