Cure needed for outof-control spending

The savaging suffered by senior members of NHS Tayside’s board in Holyrood has been a long time coming.

At a time of unprecedented cut-backs in the health service, the Tayside organisation seems to have continued spending at an unsustainable rate.

The board has had to go cap-in-hand back to the Scottish Government yet again for a further £1.5 million just to see it through to the end of the year.

Its five-year strategy for repaying that brokerage loan, and others, while meeting savings targets was described as “a bit of thumb in the air, let’s hope for the best” by former health secretary, Alex Neil.

Independent advisers will move in and there can be no guarantees that patient services will not be affected in coming years.

It is particularly embarrassing this should be happening in the Scottish health secretary’s own back yard.

Defending himself from withering claims that his plan could have been written by Mystic Meg, NHS Tayside chairman Professor John Connell pointed out external pressures were a factor and it is hard not to have a degree of sympathy amidst current political upheaval.

The latest loan would allow services to remain operational and that is all the public wants to hear — that clinics, wards, and operating theatres will be open when needed.

But it is clear the financial situation needs to be brought under control as a matter or urgency.