NHS board ‘cooking the books’

AN NHS board ‘misrepresented’ its accounts by using funds earmarked for digital healthcare to boost its financial statements, a report found.

NHS Tayside was yesterday accused of ‘cooking the books’ in order to give the impression it was in a better financial position than it was.

The investigation by auditor Grant Thornton found it repeatedly banked money supposed to be used to fund ‘eHealth’ initiatives to offset general expenditure.

The probe revealed the practice began in 2012 and continued until the auditor was appointed this month to investigate why £5.3million of eHealth funding had been wrongly recorded in accounts.

The report said: ‘We have significant concerns around the practices being followed by NHS Tayside. Since 2012, the board’s reported financial performance has been misrepresented.’

The findings will be scrutinised by the public audit committee next week.

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘It is bad enough any health board should be under such severe financial pressure it is reduced to cooking the books but for it to happen in the Health Secretary’s back yard beggars belief.’

Health Secretary and Dundee City East MSP Shona Robison said the situation was ‘serious’ and that ‘additional scrutiny’ of the board’s finances had been put in place.

NHS Tayside chief executive Lesley McLay admitted the practice was ‘unacceptable’.