Fears over NHS ‘superboards’
A RADICAL overhaul of the NHS is under way with moves to create three regional ‘superboards’ serving the east, north and west of Scotland.
The Scottish Government has appointed three chief executives as ‘implementation leads’ – to merge key services, save cash and create new centres of excellence.
But the move has sparked fears of job losses and patients having to travel further for treatment.
In the north of Scotland, cancer, heart and children’s mental health services are among those already merged across the region.
Scottish Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton deemed the moves ‘merger by stealth’, while former NHS Grampian medical director Donnie Ross believes the appointments ‘will lead to the amalgamation of health boards’. He also warned professionals have lost faith in the ability of the Scottish Government and health boards.
Mr Ross said: ‘Interfering micromanaging of central government and the culture of management attitudes have, for a number of years, been impeding rather than improving the work of the NHS.
‘It has become painfully obvi- ous that neither health boards nor the Scottish Government have been listening to perfectly reasonable concerns, whether about bed numbers, service capacity and provision or, on occasions, even patient safety.’
He said ‘chaotic’ health chiefs appeared intent on ‘dismantling previous centres of excellence outwith the Central Belt and replacing them with methods which are less effective, less efficient, more expensive, and compel patients in remoter areas to travel long distances for relatively routine and noncomplex surgery, or consultations with experts’.
The Scottish Government confirmed that Malcolm Wright, chief executive of NHS Grampian, is the new ‘implementation lead’ for the North of Scotland Health Boards.
NHS Lothian chief Tim Davison and John Burns, chief executive of Ayrshire and Arran, have been given similar roles in the east and west respectively.
The Government insisted there were no plans to cut the number of ‘patient-facing boards’ but pointed to a Government report stating that ‘regional – and in some case, national – centres of expertise and planning should develop for some acute services to improve patient care’.
The report adds: ‘That doesn’t mean structural change to NHS boards responsible for the delivery of services to our patients but it does mean they must work more collaboratively and across boundaries.’
But Mr Cole-Hamilton said the disclosure ‘chimes with the SNP’s previous efforts to centralise other public services’.
He added: ‘We have seen with the catastrophic merger to create Police Scotland that economies of scale do not always lead to improvement.
‘The importance of having regionally-based decision making in the NHS can’t be understated. There are very different needs from one community to the next.’
He called the move ‘merger by stealth, but in the end patients and the public will find the Scottish Government out on this’.
Six health boards in the north – Tayside, Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles – already work together through the North of Scotland Planning Group, which could provide the basis for a new super health board.
A group statement said the six health board areas ‘have a strong track record over many years of service collaboration and cross-boundary working’.
The Scottish Government said: ‘Our focus is on promoting greater collaboration between NHS boards, and with partners, to deliver modern, sustainable health and social care services.
‘Regional and national delivery plans will also be developed to improve services.’
‘The public will find the Government out’