Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Warning over NHS overspend
NHS Tayside is staring down the barrel of a £19.7 million overspend as the service continues to be challenged by staffing vacancies and inflation.
The figure was revealed during a board meeting held yesterday.
Previously, the forecast overspend was sitting around £33m, but the board has been able to alleviate some financial pressure through £14m worth of Scottish Government funding.
However, officials have given a stark warning that a good chunk of funding won’t be available in the next financial year.
Director of finance, Stuart Lyall, said: “A point to note around (the government funding) is that it’s non-recurring in nature.
“So it helps this year’s position but it doesn’t address the underlying issues going forward.”
NHS Tayside has received £30.4m in additional funding from Holyrood over the past year.
But only £8.6 million of this is recurring and supports the financial sustainability of the board in future years.
The board also heard that reliance on agency staff, inflationary costs, and the level of demand for unscheduled care have been some of the main areas of overspending.
Members also raised concern as it was revealed that the number of qualified nurses is expected to “significantly” reduce.
Board member Professor Rory McCrimmon said: “We’re not getting the recruitments that we used to get in the past.
“Part of it of course is pay and part of it is because the health service is not seen to be an attractive place to work at present.
“So there is a lot of work to be done across the board – but nursing I think is in a major crisis.”