NHS Tayside crisis brings merger call

A FORMER SNP health secretary has called for NHS Tayside to be folded in response to the cash crisis.

Alex Neil said that the accounting fiddles which led to the demise of its leadership could have been exposed earlier if there were fewer health boards in Scotland.

The Nationalist MSP is proposing the number of territorial health boards is reduced from 14 to three in a bid to improve scrutiny and cut administrative costs.

As pressure mounts on Health Secretary Shona Robison over the Tayside saga, her predecessor Mr Neil criticised a lack of ambition in reforming the struggling NHS.

Ms Robison told the chairman and chief executive of Tayside their positions were untenable and drafted in replacements on Friday.

Mr Neil said: “I think (the Tayside financial crisis) underlines the fact we have got far too many boards, so it’s much easier for these things to slip through the net.

“It’s time to collapse the territorial boards, get rid of the 14 territorial boards and the separate board for the Golden Jubilee.

“Instead of those 15 boards, have three very strong regional boards.

“If I was still there that is one of the things I would be doing, because it’s time for radical surgery on the bureaucracy.”

In comments which will be seen as a swipe at Ms Robison’s leadership, he added: “There is reform going on but it is far too slow and not at the pace or scale required.”

The structure proposed by Mr Neil would see Tayside, Fife and Grampian come under an east of Scotland superboard.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman declined to comment on cutting the number of health boards, but said more decisions were being made on a wider regional level. She said: “We have been strengthening regional planning and delivery in recent months.

“This will allow faster decisions to be made at a regional level and, in combination with the more local decision makers, allow for higher quality care for those who need it.

“The combination of national, regional and local decision making give us the best of all worlds to ensure high quality care.”

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Alex Neil MSP