NHS charity funds probe call

AN official probe should be launched into the finances of all Scottish NHS boards in the wake of the NHS Tayside charity cash scandal, MSPs have demanded.

Bosses at crisis-hit NHS Tayside siphoned more than £2million from a charity fund made up of public donations and bequests in wills to plug gaping holes in its coffers.

The disclosure last week saw the board’s bosses forced out and the Scottish Government install its own management team.

Now MSPs are calling for chiefs at each of the 14 health boards to be questioned over their use of charitable donations to ensure the practice is not widespread across NHS Scotland. Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar has written to Holyrood’s health committee asking members to take evidence from NHS boards to help reassure the public over charity cash use.

He has also written to the audit committee asking it to re-investigate the financing and accounts at NHS Tayside.

The health board’s endowment fund is ring-fenced to pay for items such as toys for children’s wards, specialist equipment and refurbishments to day rooms.

But NHS Tayside, which has been propped up by £37.5million of taxpayer-funded bailouts in five years, used the cash to help finance an existing digital health scheme.

Mr Sarwar said: ‘It is essential all NHS boards are now called before the health committee to establish how this came to happen and if it is more widespread.

‘The audit committee must also urgently re-investigate the SNP’s financial mismanagement of NHS Tayside, which caused this scandal in the first place.

‘Shona Robison appointed John Connell to sort out NHS Tayside It would be an outrage if senior managers now received any kind of golden goodbye.’

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘Details of NHS Tayside’s retrospective use of endowment funding will form part of the externally-led review of the governance of NHS Tayside finances. We have written to all boards asking for assurance that endowment funds are being used appropriately.’