NHS waits ‘nearly never-ending’ as wards close doors
HOSPITALS in Scotland are closing wards in a bid to save cash – sparking fears that patients will have to wait longer for treatment.
A Scottish Mail On Sunday investigation shows health boards are under pressure to cut spending by almost £80 million in the next few months – despite already slashing millions from budgets.
Measures taken by boards to balance the books include cutting beds and spending less on medicines and agency staff.
But patients now face further cuts to frontline services and the prospect of longer waits for operations.
Beds have already been axed in two health board areas and others may be forced to do so.
Health policy analyst Roy Lilley said: ‘We keep hollowing out the NHS with our quest for savings. At the end of the day, all the heath service can do is delay treatment, which means waiting times go up.
‘People with sore hips, knees, hernias, those needing cataract operations, they all get shoved in a queue that is now becoming never-ending.
‘It makes life difficult and painful for people. Most are at a time of life where they put their taxes into the NHS when they were younger. Now it’s their turn to take some money out – and the money isn’t there. The current funding levels are not sustainable.’
We asked Scotland’s 14 health boards for their year-end budget projections. Nine were on course to go over budget – by a total of £77.4 million.
Official reports show where savings are being made to try to balance the books.
An NHS Tayside report confirmed ‘a number’ of surgical bed closures would ‘further reduce costs in the remaining six months of the financial year’ – and ‘additional acute beds’, staffed until mid-June at a cost of £200,000, ‘have now been removed’.
An NHS Tayside spokesman said: ‘At the beginning of this financial year, we forecast we would make efficiency savings of £45.8 million. Our current forecast is £1 million short, however, we are looking to close the gap in the remaining five months of 2017-18.’
NHS Highland’s latest finance report, which predicts an overspend of £19.3 million, revealed it had saved £204,000 by cutting beds, with the figure expected to rise to £343,000 by the end of the financial year.
The report said the board was making ‘concerted efforts’ to come up with a ‘longer-term recovery plan’.
Most of the other boards predicted a deficit and some may be forced to cut bed numbers.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran expects a deficit of more than £20 million. Acute services must save £5.3 million, but it is still unclear where £4.7 million of those cuts will fall.
In June, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde warned of an £18.5 million deficit, but this week said it had made progress towards cutting that figure.
NHS Fife said its ‘worst-case scenario’ was £8.3 million, but added the most recent predictions put it between break-even and a deficit of £7.2 million.
NHS Lothian reported a figure of £4.9 million and NHS Borders £4.4 million. In the Western Isles it is £556,000 and in Shetland £478,000.
The remaining boards predicted they would break even, with the exception of NHS Orkney, which expects a slight surplus.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘Health boards across Scotland are really under the cosh financially. While demographics are challenging, the SNP’s mismanagement of the health service is also to blame.
‘It hasn’t planned for the future and staff and patients are now dealing with the consequences.
‘Plenty of extra money for health has come to Scotland via the Barnett Formula in recent years, more than £1.8 billion between 2011 and 2017, yet the SNP doesn’t seem to have spent it wisely.’