A fifth of NHS savings are ‘high risk’

25 Oct 2012

Around 20 per cent of earmarked savings in Scotland’s NHS will come at significant risk, it has been warned.

Audit Scotland said today while health boards had made good progress in identifying efficiencies, around a fifth of these were deemed ‘high risk’.

It is estimated Scottish health boards will have to make more than £270 million worth of savings by the end of 2012/13, the report stated.

Audit Scotland’s paper also revealed a maintenance bill for Scotland’s NHS of more than £100 billion.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman and deputy leader Jackson Carlaw MSP said:

“What this shows is that the SNP’s promise of making cuts without frontline services being affected is becoming less believable by the day.

“The Scottish Government should listen to theses health boards who are saying: ‘We can make the cuts, but a fifth of these could have serious consequences.’

“We have already lost more than 2000 nurses in the space of a couple of years, and now we’re staring at even more efficiency savings.

“The sheer scale of the maintenance bill should also focus minds.

“We’ve seen the disaster of PFI in some Scottish hospitals, yet the SNP is now pursuing a strikingly similar approach by way of non-profit distribution.

“This tactic has already ensured Edinburgh’s Sick Kids hospital will remain in an ancient building for years longer than it should, and we still don’t know for sure when it will open.”