Cash-strapped NHS Tayside is facing an £11.6 million budget deficit but has no plans in place to address the shortfall, a major new report has warned.
Auditor General for Scotland Caroline Gardner has told the Scottish Parliament NHS Tayside and NHS 24 both face extreme financial challenges.
She said there is “significant risk” NHS Tayside will not meet its financial plan in 2016/17 or subsequent years.
NHS Tayside has received £24.3 million in financial support from the Scottish Government over the last four years in order to break even.
In 2015/16, the health board received £5 million to cover pressures including staffing and prescribing costs, and reaching national performance targets.
As well as the need to repay this support, the board has set an unprecedented savings target of £58.4 million for 2016/17.
Ms Gardner’s report said NHS Tayside is forecasting a potential deficit of £11.6 million and does not currently have plans in place that fully address this gap.
It states: “Based on its (NHS Tayside’s) financial performance to date, there is a significant risk it will require financial aid again in order to break even.
She also highlighted the soaring cost of NHS 24’s new IT system.
The final cost of the programme, which began six years ago, is now estimated at £131.2 million – 73% higher originally forecast.
Ms Gardner said: “Each of these health boards is experiencing prolonged and considerable challenges which continue to have an impact on the way they operate and deliver services.
“While action is under way to try and address these issues, there’s no quick fix available and recovery will take time.
“It’s important that the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government closely monitor progress to ensure circumstances do not worsen, to the detriment of staff and service users.”
NHS Tayside chief executive Lesley McLay said: “Today’s report from the Auditor General sets out some of the challenges which we experienced in 2015/16 and I would like to assure communities in Tayside that we have already taken decisive actions to address these to ensure NHS Tayside returns to sustainable financial balance in the coming years.
“We have a medium to long-term plan to return to sustainable financial balance, but we also have shorter-term plans, including a comprehensive operational delivery plan for 2016/17, which addresses key areas such as tackling our nursing agency and locum doctor spending and continuing with our prescribing initiatives to reduce this key cost.
“We have been in regular discussions with the Scottish Government in 2016/17 and we will work closely with colleagues there, as well as our own staff and partners, our patients and the public, as we continue to drive our transformation of health services in Tayside.”
Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar siad the deficit is embarrassing for Scottish Government health minister – and MSP for Dundee City East – Shona Robison.
He said: “This is a brutal report for Shona Robison.
“The SNP Health minister has spent all summer denying that our NHS faces cuts, denying that staff are under pressure, and claiming our NHS has enough resources, only to have her claims blown out of the water by her own health board.
“Labour has already called for Shona Robison to make a statement to parliament about cuts to local health services – she must also address the huge cuts to come in Tayside.”
Scottish Government health secretary Shona Robison said: “I acknowledge the issues that the Auditor General raises in her report with regard to NHS Tayside and I welcome the fact that the board is putting in place a long-term plan to return to sustainable financial balance.
“The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the board to monitor their progress as they work to strengthen their financial position.
“This Government has protected and increased the NHS Tayside resource budget, by £182.1 million (35.2%) since 2006/7. This year alone, NHS Tayside’s frontline budget has been increased by 5.8 per cent to a total of £699.1 million.”
