Big cuts required to balance NHS Grampian books

NHS Grampian is responsible for health and social care in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Moray. It had to spend over £37m on agency staff and locums last year because of a shortage of permanent nurses, medical staff, radiographers and physiotherapists, and now has to find £70m of cuts over the next four years to address its financial situation.

Scottish Conservative MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Alexander Burnett, said: “These figures once again demonstrate the financial straitjacket within which NHS Grampian has to operate. The Scottish Conservatives have repeatedly highlighted that this area is being short-changed under an SNP government. The amount of money per head of population that NHS Grampian received this year is the lowest anywhere in Scotland. It is dwarfed by the funds provided to many areas in the Central Belt. Our research has shown a direct link between the poor level of funding and declining performance across a range of different measures. Perhaps the new Health Secretary will do what her SNP predecessors have failed to do and give Grampian a fairer deal.”

An NHS Grampian spokesperson said “There is the likelihood that agency nursing spend will increase in the short term in order to ensure continuity of safe staffing levels and to support a number of key service delivery initiatives. In the longer term, the board expects agency nursing spend to reduce as a number of workforce redesign plans have been developed and are currently being implemented. However, our preference is to recruit permanently and we continue to work hard at filling our vacancies. The provision of a safe and sustainable service for our patients and staff will always be the major consideration whenever we consider reducing our spend on supplementary staffing. The main areas which will be targeted for achievement of savings in 2018/19 are medical locums, savings on the cost of medicines and savings delivered through service and productive efficiencies.”