The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
£1.8bn shortfall facing NHS Scotland by 2023
Dire forecast in annual report and warning of maintenance backlog at Ninewells
More than half of NHS Scotland’s “high risk” maintenance backlog is essential electrical work needing to be carried out at Ninewells, a report has uncovered.
Audit Scotland’s annual report issued the dire warning NHS Scotland is “running hot” with an expected £1.8 billion shortfall in funding by 2023, while the British Medical Association (BMA) said there is an ever-growing gap between care and resources in Scotland as the country spends less as a proportion of GDP on health than other European countries.
NHS Tayside was one of four boards to receive extra money – £17.6 million – in 2018-19. As a result, all health boards “broke even” by the end of the financial year.
Tayside was also one of five boards which had reached an “escalation point” and remains at stage four on the escalation scale.
At stage five, the Scottish Government would deem its organisational structure as being unable to deliver effective care. NHS Tayside was downgraded from stage five earlier this year.
More than 55% of the entirety of NHS Scotland’s “high risk” maintenance backlog is a result of the necessary electrical work needing to be carried out at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
The Scottish Government has said it will pay for the work to be completed as soon as possible.
NHS Tayside is also to receive funding for a new elective programme to create additional procedural and diagnostic capacity.
NHS Tayside hit three of eight key performance targets last year, while NHS Fife realised four.
NHS Fife was highlighted in the report for leading the way in reducing drug and medicine costs, having cut £12m in spending since 2016.
BMA Scotland chairman Dr Lewis Morrison said: “Today’s Audit Scotland report – while showing some minor improvements as the Scottish Government has started to accept the challenges we face – overall paints a picture of the parlous state of our NHS.
“It is clear our NHS is seriously struggling to become financially sustainable. The suggestion of a £1.8bn funding gap for 2023-24 – something we have been warning of for some time – just serves to illustrate the growing gap between demand for care and resources available to our NHS.
“Scotland continues to spend less on health as a proportion of GDP than other European countries, so we need a
“It is now very clear that the 2020 vision for health and social care in Scotland will not be achieved.
LEWIS MORRISON
credible plan developed to address this in the long term.
“It is now very clear that the 2020 vision for health and social care in Scotland will not be achieved.
“The absence of joined-up long-term, realistic and coherent planning is why so many of our services, and the staff delivering them, are under such huge pressures.
“The next long-term plan must be one that is bold, but realistic and deliverable. On that basis, we should give an extremely cautious welcome to the small progress Audit Scotland acknowledges, but it is only a start.”
Caroline Gardner, the Auditor General for Scotland, said: “The NHS in Scotland is running too hot, with intense pressure on staff and a service model that will remain financially unsustainable without a much greater focus on health and social care integration.
“We’re beginning to see examples of new ways of delivering healthcare but they’re some distance from the system-wide reform the NHS needs. The challenge for the Scottish Government and its partners will be to agree new priorities that enable large-scale change and which create a leadership culture that supports and respects all staff.”