Ministers step into NHS Tayside crisis

THE Scottish Government is exercising emergency powers to bring NHS Tayside into line amid the health service’s cash crisis.

Health minister and Dundee East MSP Shona Robison said the current makeup of the Tayside board “cannot deliver” on its goal of achieving financial balance.

She has asked chairman Professor John Connell to step down and described chief executive Lesley McLay’s position as “untenable”.

NHS Tayside’s financial position has been unstable for several years, with bosses asking ministers for £33m of loans yet to be repaid and millions in savings outlined for years to come.

However, matters came to a head last month when finance chiefs were found to have squirrelled away £5.3m of funding for inappropriate uses.

A report by auditors Grant Thornton found bosses at NHS Tayside and NHS National Services Scotland knowingly “misaccounted” £5.3m of eHealth funds to bolster the troubled board’s financial position. Director of finance Lindsay Bedford was allowed to suddenly retire last month.

And reports surfaced earlier this week that £2.7m of charity cash from the Tayside Health Fund, used to fund patient comforts, was used to plug gaps i n f unding. Charity regulator OSCR is investigating the alleged mis- use of funds.

Ms Robison said: “Issues over past few weeks have laid bare the extent of the problems facing NHS Tayside and the minutes of a meeting of trustees in 2014 outline in detail the approval of the use of endowment funds by the chief executive.

“It has become clear to me that the current structure of the board cannot deliver the improvements required to return to a sustainable position, while continuing to deliver safe and effective services to patients.

“As such, I will be exercising ministerial powers of intervention and moving NHS Tayside to the highest level of escalation.”

Ms Robison has also instructed Paul Gray, chief executive of NHS Scotland, to “strengthen the leadership” of NHS Tayside with immediate effect.

Speaking to the Tele yesterday, Professor Connell said he was “deeply sorry” for the board’s recent financial woes – but said it had “inherited a difficult situation”. Ourvoice PAGE 16

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Shona Robison