Health chief sets himself four-year target to fix NHS

Gray vows service will be better after damning report by public watchdog

THE head of the Scottish NHS has pledged the service will be in a better place by 2020 following a damning report by public spending watchdog Audit Scotland.

Paul Gray, director general of health and social care, said he did not dispute the accuracy of the report, which described the level of cuts health boards will have to make this year as “unprecedented”, and highlighted a lack of planning for the future.

Mr Gray promised to present the Scottish Parliament with a plan by the end of this year showing how the vision for the health service would be delivered, including workforce numbers and cost implications.

This was, he said, something he had signalled his intention to do before he had seen Audit Scotland’s findings.

Asked when auditors would find NHS Scotland in a better position, Mr Gray said: “I would certainly hope by 2020 an Audit Scotland report will be looking back and saying this is how it was in 2016, this is how it is now and 2020 will be better.”

Incremental improvements, he added, would be delivered along the way.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, came under attack from rival politicians at Holyrood over the report.

She told First Minister’s Questions that Holyrood faced a “moment of truth” over health service reforms as she denied the SNP’s policies had created a crisis in the service.

Mr Gray signalled that he agreed with the watchdog’s findings that health boards need to re-organise some hospital services to free up money for community care, despite considerable public and political opposition to closures.

He said: “We cannot afford to let the transformational change we need to be stymied. What we need to do, however, is make sure we engage effectively with the public and help people to understand what it is that we are proposing and give them a say in how it is designed and delivered.”

He referred to public meetings in Lanarkshire, where plans to centralise orthopaedic services are causing controversy, and said he had been told when the details were explained to people they were taking it on board.

Audit Scotland found health boards were having to save £492 million this year to prevent their budgets falling into the red, 65 per cent more than the cuts needed in the last financial year.

Mr Gray said: “I think the efficiency savings that boards are expected to make year on year are increasingly testing. I would entirely accept that. But they are not different from efficiency savings that are expected elsewhere in the public sector.” He added: “I do not believe they are unachievable.”

He highlighted schemes in Lanarkshire, Fife and north Tayside which involve bringing traditionally hospital-based services into people’s homes and said they were better for patients and could be more efficient.

Mr Gray highlighted some of the more positive messages in the Audit Scotland report, which opens by noting that, over the last 10 years, waiting times for treatment had fallen while life expectancy and patient safety have improved.

However, the report goes on to warn that NHS funding is not keeping pace with the needs of the ageing population and that only one out of eight key waiting times targets is being met.

Mr Gray said he felt Scotland achievements against those targets should be measured alongside other nations. “We are doing well in highly pressured circumstances,” he said.

Matt McLaughlin, regional organiser with union Unison which represents many NHS staff, said Audit Scotland’s report was welcomed adding: “It is time that people presented a change programme and that we built a consensus to get on with it.”

He added that it was not surprising the chief executive of the NHS thought savings targets were achievable but “the reality is far different”.

Mr McLaughlin said issues with staff vacancies and staff shortages, also highlighted by Audit Scotland, were the real impact of “so-called achievable cuts”. SCOTTISH Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson has been named The Herald Scottish Politician of the Year after transforming her party’s electoral fortunes and leading them to their best ever result at Holyrood.

Ms Davidson was also named Donald Dewar Debater of the Year for her performances in the Scottish Parliament and on behalf of the Remain side during the EU referendum.

She beat First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, last year’s winner, and Education Secretary John Swinney.

Under Ms Davidson’s leadership the Tories have emerged from the electoral wilderness and overtaken Labour to become the main opposition at Holyrood in May, doubling the party’s MSPs from 15 to 31. She won the Edinburgh Central seat at her first attempt during the last election.