Health boards struggling to meet budgets as end of financial year approaches
The health boards in Tayside and Fife have overspent by almost £4.5m, it has been revealed.
- By Alan Wilson
- Published in the Courier : 17.01.12
- Published online : 17.01.12 @ 04.08pm
NHS Tayside revealed an overspend of £1.9m, but Fife's is even higher, at £2.4m, only weeks before the end of the financial year.
The rises come amid a reported overspend across Scotland's health boards of over £16m at a time of Government cost-cutting and soaring drug costs.
Most boards blame the cost of expensive medicines and paying temporary nurses and doctors to plug staff shortages.
NHS Tayside says further cost-cutting and additional savings have been identified and it is on course to rectify the overspend by the end of the financial year.
The problem emerged in NHS boards' latest cash-flow reports, which reveal eight of Scotland's 11 mainland health boards are over budget. Managers have been ordered to make £300m of efficiency savings this year by the Scottish Government.
Health boards are now reporting multi-million-pound overspends to cover ongoing costs such as drugs, staff absences and sending patients to private clinics for specialist treatment.
Senior management representatives warned that future services would be in jeopardy if budget pressures continue.
NHS Tayside finance director Ian McDonald said: ''NHS Tayside has an overspend of £1.9m at 30 November 2011. Steps are in place to bring this overspend down to zero through identifying additional savings and cost reductions in the final four months of the year and we are currently on target to break even this financial year.
''Clinical supplies, increasing cost of energy and cost of medicines are key areas which have contributed to the overspend at the end of November. We have also seen an overspend on specialist referrals to institutions mainly due to a small number of high-cost eating disorder and brain injury cases.''
The admission by Scotland's health boards has horrified patients' groups, who have called for more NHS funding from the Government to avoid patient care being compromised.
The latest figures represent the amount each board has spent so far this financial year — which ends in March — compared with their budgeted expectations.
The highest is at NHS Highland at £3.5m, while NHS Greater Glasgow, Scotland's biggest health board, has admitted an overspend of £2.8m so far. NHS Fife and Lanarkshire come in at £2.5m over budget, while NHS Lothian is £2.1m over budget.
NHS Tayside has overspent by £1.9m and NHS Borders and Grampian have notched up an overspend of around £1.4m. NHS Forth Valley has an overspend of £532,000.
Only NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire and NHS Dumfries and Galloway have not overspent.
Last year, a report by Audit Scotland revealed a ''good'' financial performance, with boards well within budget.
A Scottish Government spokesman said all boards were forecasting they will be within budget for 2011-12.
11.46pm - 17.01.2012 BudIce - Edinburgh, UK Report This
£16m is 0.2% overspend of total NHS budget. Important to come within budget but needs to be put into context. Vital that "quick fix" efficiency savings don't cause problems for the future, esp. investing in staff.
09.46am - 19.01.2012 Madge Redford - Dundee, UK Report This
The budget cuts are really damaging frontline services! My GP is fantastic and i can see them really quickly - however i then have to wait months for any tests or clinic appointments at the hospital. Whats the point in my GP referring me quickly if the hospital is SO SLOW in seeing me????
11.00am - 25.01.2012 Mental Health Service survivor - Dundee, Scotland Report This
here`s an idea.Get rid of the Community Mental Health Services in Dundee. Would save a fortune. Since the duty of medics is to preserve life and those teams fail to do so frequently, they are not fit for purpose so should be scrapped.
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