NHS Grampian facing ‘really challenging’ deadline to slash £24 million from budget
A health board ordered to cut millions more from its budget could be forced into “hard choices” about how to cause the “least harm”, a board meeting has heard.
The Scottish Government has told NHS Grampian to slash another £24 million from this year’s budget - by a deadline just eight weeks away.
An NHS Grampian board meeting agreed to start work on finding the extra savings along with approving a separate plan for £39 million of cuts.
Finance director Alex Stephen told board members it would be “really challenging” to carry out the Scottish Government’s order to cut so much cash in such a short time.
While Dr John Tomlinson said he believed the extra savings could force the board into making difficult decisions where they had to decide what would cause “least harm”.
“I would be very surprised, myself, if that didn't include having to make some hard choices on where we do least harm,” he added.
“That was something we had to do through COVID and I think it's something we have to do in the short term.”
Documents released before the board meeting confirmed that the Scottish Government loaned NHS Grampian £67.5 million to balance last year’s budget.
However, a top official warned NHS Grampian that its financial position “threatens the stability” of the entire country’s health and care budget and ordered “swift remedial action”.
NHS Grampian was “very grateful” for the loan, a report said, which brings the total sum owed to the Scottish Government to £92.2 million - which it will have to repay after balancing its books.
However, officials have warned that the same support will not be given this year - ordering the health board to slash its predicted overspend, as of next March, from £68 million to £45 million.
Should NHS Grampian fail to cut £24 million from its budget, documents state, civil servants could assume more power over cuts.
The warning came just two months after the Scottish Government stepped up its oversight of the health board following “deterioration in the financial position”.
NHS Grampian has the biggest overspend of any Scottish health board and the third-largest in percentage terms.
Despite the deficit having ballooned over the last year, a meeting report said that overspends within NHS Grampian’s own services had now “stabilised”.
However, extra pressure had been caused when overspending by local health and care boards landed NHS Grampian with an unexpected bill for £24.7 million.
The report also warned that costs were set to rise year-on-year, due to Grampian having Scotland’s fastest-growing population of over-75s.
The £39 million of cuts agreed at the Thursday, April 10, board meeting included £3 million saved by limiting recruitment across 14 different directorates, £520,000 cut from operational budgets at Dr Gray’s Hospital and half-a-million pounds found by changing hospital menus.
Plans to save £4.6 million by cutting energy costs and £2.6 million through savings on hospital drugs were among the other cuts approved.
Board members also agreed to create a £38 million fund to help NHS Grampian weather looming overspends from local health and care boards, and to create a three-year financial recovery plan, aiming to return the health board to “financial balance” by 2028.
