15/01/2016
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde considering cuts of PS1m a week
SCOTTISH HEALTH boards are considering severe cuts to deal with chronic budget shortfalls, leaked papers have revealed.
In order to avoid falling into debt, boards are considering cuts to hospitals, services and jobs
NHS Greater Clyde and Glasgow are considering some of the harshest measures with cuts to nursing posts and the closures of a rehabilitation centre, a homeopathic hospital and a children’s ward all under consideration.
NHS Lothian is predicting that it will have to make savings of PS84m to stay out of debt in 2017. NHS Lanarkshire will have to make savings equivalent to five per cent of its budget in 2016-17.
Other measures tabled for cutting costs include leaving currently vacant job places unfilled.
The news comes as Scottish hospital and other NHS services are already struggling to cope with demand.
Quoted in the Herald , regional organiser for the Unison trade union said:”We have a financial and beds crisis right across Scotland. While Glasgow’s might be particularly acute in that the figure is PS60m, if you can extrapolate that across the whole of Scotland I think you probably get an indication of what we are looking at.”
Tayside and Highlands health boards have already been highlighted for unsustainable budgeting by Audit Scotland.
The news comes after the Finance Minister John Swinney announced record spending of PS13bn in the NHS in the December 2015 Scottish budget. However, other social funding budgets remain excpetionally tight following six years of austerity budgets which has shrunk Scotland’s ‘block grant’ payment from Westminster.
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Picture courtesy of Alex Proimos