Patients suffer as NHS board plans £100m more cuts

A HEALTH board has admitted that patient care is suffering because of swingeing cuts ‘to the detriment of patients waiting for appointments and surgery’.

But nevertheless NHS Highland has announced it is to slash a further £100 million from its budget.

A starkly-worded report written by health board officials warned that some hospital care and out-of-hours services are ‘not as clinically safe as they could be and need to change’.

It predicted that without radical action services would ‘fall over’, with patients already hit by cuts in opening hours at some units and beds closed in others.

Despite warnings about the detrimental effect of the cutbacks on patients so far, the NHS Highland Strategic Quality and Sustainability Vision report states: ‘Increasing costs and demands, staffing pressures and unprecedented savings targets mean that the current model of health and social care delivery is not sustainable in Highland.’

Last night, Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘It’s more damning evidence of how the SNP is running the NHS into the ground, with patients suffering as a result.’

In a statement, NHS Highland said it had made savings of £28 million last year through finding efficiencies, quality improvement work and making changes in models of care: ‘This will continue to be the approach taken by the board but the challenge, and the need for change, will be even greater in the coming years.’