£2.3 million overspend revealed in new report

dundee’S health and social care services are spending £2.1 million more on prescribing medicines than planned.

A report set to be reviewed by the managing Integrated Joint Board this week has found that The Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) is £2.3m over budget in total, much of which is related to GP prescribing.

The position, as of December 2017, is better than in October, when the partnership was set to exceed its budget by £2.5m.

However, NHS Tayside will be expected to foot the prescribing bill, as part of a “risk sharing” agreement with the health board.

The HSCP manages some health services on behalf of NHS Tayside and Dundee City Council.

It largely covers community level services such as social work, adult mental health services, older people’s health services and support with long term health conditions.

The report going before committee said there were “significant risks and challenges” associated with the services delegated from NHS Tayside to the HSCP. And specific issues such as GP prescribing have been judged by the HSCP as having a “likely” impact on local care services in future.

However, delegated care bosses believe they can avoid any crisis in community health when the end of the financial year comes around in March.

The report continued: “It is anticipated that with further reshaping of services and emergence of efficiencies through NHS Tayside’s Transformation Programme that overall services directly managed by Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership will balance by the end of the financial year.”

Other, less severe financial pressures on the HSCP budget include a £920,000 overspend on older peoples’ services — largely offset by underspends in mental health, substance misuse and physical disabilities.

Dundee’s HSCP is also bearing the weight of overspends made by other local partnerships in Tayside, to the tune of £383,000.

This is due to another “risk sharing” agreement Dundee’s HSCP has with its equivalents in both Angus and Perth and Kinross. Angus is underspending by £364,000, whilst Perth is overspending by £1.5m – with the brunt of Perth HSCP’s spending split and shared amongst the other local partnerships, including Dundee.