Payments of £33m government crisis loan are suspended Not enough doctors to look after patients, medics’ chief claims

NHS Tayside’s £33 million crisis loan debt to the Scottish Government has been “suspended”.

In a letter to Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee, Paul Gray, the director general for health and social care, said the brokerage would be taken off the table for the time being after a bombshell report declared there was little chance of it being paid back without compromising performance.

He wrote: “I will return to this issue once NHS Tayside’s transformation plans are further developed.”

A report by the team sent to assess the beleaguered health board said the Scottish Government “should consider the potential impact on NHS Tayside of being required to repay the £33.2m of accumulated financial support which is still outstanding and note the potential need to provide further financial support in future years.”

The Scottish Government has provided financial support totalling £37.5m to NHS Tayside over the last five years. Just £4.3m has been repaid.

Jackie Baillie, acting convener of the Public Audit Committee, said: “Our Committee previously heard from NHS Tayside bosses on the major financial challenges they faced.

“Underpinning all of these discussions was our strong belief that patients and staff members should not suffer as a result of NHS Tayside’s financial problems.

“We hope the Scottish Government’s plans to ‘suspend’ the requirement for NHS Tayside to repay loans of £33m will give the health board the chance to get back on to a sustainable financial footing and protect vital patient services in Tayside in the future.”

Doctors have accused the Scottish Government of “simply ignoring a major risk to the health service” by failing to deal with staff shortages in the NHS, the chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland is set to claim.

Dr Peter Bennie will use a speech today to highlight the “unrelenting” pressures staff and services are facing – adding there are areas where the NHS lacks enough staff to “look after patients properly”.

Official figures show more than 400 consultant jobs across Scotland are unfilled while Brexit could spark an “exodus of talented staff” from the health service, Dr Bennie will claim.

Junior doctor positions in many specialities “lie empty”, he will add, while more than a quarter of GP practices are “missing” senior staff.

Both the “financial difficulties facing the NHS in Scotland and the pressures on our clinical workforce are unrelenting,” Dr Bennie will say.

He will add: “Good health services cost money and health spending is a political choice.

“The UK spends a smaller proportion of its national wealth than the average levels spent by comparable leading European nations and the BMA is calling for that to change, in all four nations.”

On the “key area” of staffing, he will insist: “We simply do not have enough doctors in general practice or secondary care in Scotland to look after patients properly.

“The Scottish Government repeatedly says that ‘there are more doctors than ever before’ – but this is simply ignoring a major risk to the health service and it is demoralising and frustrating for doctors to hear time and time again.”

We simply do not have enough doctors in general practice or secondary care. DR PETER BENNIE, BMA

Paul Gray, director general for health and social care.