'These numbers are worrying' — NHS Fife budget black hole attributed to soaring agency staff costs
Agency staff costs have been blamed for a massive hole in NHS Fife's finances.
- By Craig Smith
- Published in the Courier : 15.09.11
- Published online : 15.09.11 @ 09.44am
The region's operational division recorded a significant overspend in its budget for the first quarter of the year.
Figures presented to health chiefs have revealed the division already has a £1.245 million shortfall to try to claw back between now and the end of March — and that has only been accrued in the months from April 1 to July 31.
Despite assurances that the financial black hole can and will be rectified by the end of the 2011/12 financial year, NHS Fife operational division chairman Dave Stewart said the need to find savings is unlikely to go away in coming years and underlines the unprecedented economic situation public services across Scotland are facing.
It is understood all staff have been spoken to about what they can do to try to ease the financial situation.
More stringent restrictions on recruitment have been introduced, although NHS Fife has stopped short of a recruitment freeze.
Overspends have been recorded in various departments, with the use of more expensive agency nurses and medical staff to cover gaps in rotas and sickness absence blamed for the board's need for extravagance in certain areas.
"These numbers are worrying," Mr Stewart admitted. "But we need to have a lot of faith that we're going to turn this around.
"We're in a very, very difficult position here and at a recent special meeting of the finance and resources committee the chief executive took it upon himself to remove every member of staff's right to recruit, so it's obviously being viewed in quite a serious light by the finance and resources committee.
"What it does do is give the public a fair insight as to just why we're looking at everything and everywhere to see where we can save some money.
"We normally start the year with an overspend but it's not normally this high . . . However, we will wait for the next financial report in November with bated breath to see if this is turning around."
Operational division committee members heard the budgets for planned care and surgery, emergency care and medicine and ambulatory care were all overspent in the first four months, with underspends in the budgets relating to estates and facilities, clinical delivery, chief executive and clinical delivery doing little to offset the total.
In most cases, the overspend is mainly within staffing.
John Winton, an elected member, urged a move away from reliance on agency staff. "I know some health boards have put in extra staff to address this problem, but we can't seem to get these spends down."
Medical director Gordon Birnie said the health board had little option in some cases.
"There are groups of staff where we have realised where we have traditionally had high levels of locum staff and have put in extra staff to address that.
"But there are unpredictable events . . . so really we have no option to go out and use these locums for cover," he said.
Assistant finance director Andrew McCreadie said rising energy costs could impact as the year progresses.
02.24pm - 16.09.2011 F.B. - Perth, Scotland U.K. Report This
Does this mean NHZs Fife will default, again, on it's payment to cover treatment to NE Fife patients attending Tayside hospitals? It beggars belief this is allowed to happen. Fifers should attending Fife hospitals, or be reclassified through a boundary change.
04.30pm - 16.09.2011 Grant S. - Fife, Scotland UK Report This
Nhs Fife does pay a sum of money to Tayside. The alternative would mean those living in the north of the kingdom travelling to QMH or VHK.
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