Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
NHS Tayside must find additional £1m of savings
NHS Tayside’s financial woes have deepened with confirmation it must find an extra £1 million to achieve its targeted savings.
An Audit Scotland report from last month showed the board was anticipating a £49.8m funding black hole for 2017-18.
At the time, health chiefs planned to make £45.8m worth of efficiency savings, with the remaining £4m funded through brokerage from the Scottish Government. However, during a public audit scrutiny meeting at Holyrood, auditors told MSPs the health board now had a “savings gap” of an additional £1m.
NHS Tayside said it is attempting to improve its situation before the end of the financial year.
However, MSPs expressed concerns that the same board members who have overseen the board’s financial struggles are “still on watch” as the crisis deepens.
Scotland’s auditor general, Caroline Gardner, told politicians she could offer no guarantees that the board would be able to meet its financial targets. Ms Gardner said she believed NHS Tayside’s board had a good understanding of the challenges it faces — but would not go so far as to say she believed targeted savings can be met.
Following the meeting, NHS Tayside chairman, Professor John Connell, said: “At the beginning of this financial year, we forecast we would make efficiency savings of £45.8m. Our current forecast is £1m short of this target. However, we are looking to close the gap in the remaining five months of 2017-18.”