“The 2014/15 audit of NHS Highland: Update on 2013/14 financial management issues”
“The 2014/15 audit of NHS Tayside: Financial management”
Item 4 is a response from Audit Scotland on its reports on NHS Highland and NHS Tayside. Do colleagues have any comments?
We have been pretty harsh on NHS Highland, but that was because Audit Scotland brought a section 22 report to us. It has reasonably addressed many of the issues to do with poor financial management that the report described.
The report said that spending on agency staff increased by 2.8 per cent. If we are sitting here criticising NHS Highland, we should highlight that spending on agency staff in territorial boards across Scotland went up 17 per cent. I want to highlight that we heard that NHS Highland undertook vacancy management in order to save money. At the same time, we have territorial boards that are spending eight times more on agency staff.
Given that the Government’s priorities are dementia and cancer, I am concerned about recruitment in radiology, clinical oncology, rheumatology, and old age psychiatry particularly. As a Highlands and Islands MSP, I appreciate that there are issues in recruiting people in remote and rural areas, as Tavish Scott will know, but I have always thought that the people in the Highlands and Islands should have the same access to the national health service as the people living in the rest of Scotland. We are talking about serious diseases. We know that cancer does not wait.
I am less concerned about NHS Highland, as it seems to be addressing most of the issues, although there are minor points about its sickness absence rates and so on. I am still a wee bit concerned about NHS Tayside in connection with the sale of the Ashludie hospital land and how key that is to the board reaching its financial targets. Perhaps we just need to keep an eye on that and maybe get a report back on how that is going. Without the sale, it will struggle over the next few years.
I am not clear on what you mean by “a report back”. Should we ask the Auditor General to consider a report? How do you want the report back?
I do not think that we need the Auditor General necessarily to report back. Can we not just ask NHS Tayside to come back and tell us when the issue is resolved?
We can do that, or we can flag it up in our legacy paper, if that would be helpful.
Maybe we could do that, too—it is an on-going issue.
Do members agree to note the response and to flag up the issue in our legacy paper?
Members indicated agreement.
As agreed, we move into private session for items 5 and 6.
12:32 Meeting continued in private until 13:07.
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Section 23 Report