Question reference: S6W-18047
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 18 May 2023
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 May 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any delays to the network of NHS Scotland's National Treatment Centres; what the (a) original scheduled opening date was and (b) new forecasted opening date is, for each centre, and whether it will provide (i) an update on the recruitment of the 1,500 clinical and non-clinical staff needed for the centres and (ii) a breakdown of any increases in forecasted costs for each centre.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s National Treatment Centres (NTCs) programme will provide protected capacity for planned care for orthopaedic, ophthalmic and diagnostic activity. NTC Fife and NTC Highland have already opened this year with NTC Forth Valley and Golden Jubilee Phase 2 due to open later this year.
The original and actual / projected costs, as well as original and actual/projected opening dates are shown in the following table.
As stated in Full Business Case | Actual / projected | |||
Cost | Opening Date | Cost | Opening Date | |
Golden Jubilee – Eye Centre (Phase 1) | £15.8m | July 20 | £15.3m | Nov 20 |
NTC Fife | £33.2m | Sep 22 | £34.3m | Mar 23 |
NTC Highland | £41.3m | Note 1 | £48.6m | Apr 23 |
NTC Forth Valley | £10.2m | Dec 22 | £12.7m | Sep 23 |
Golden Jubilee – Phase 2 | £80.9m | Dec 22 | £82.3m | Dec 23 |
Note 1: The Planned Opening Date of July 2021 (and construction completion of May 2021), as noted in the FBC submission, was based on the full business case being approved in May 2019. Consideration of the full business case was deferred until the January 2020 Capital Investment Group meeting and the approval letter issued in February 2020. At the date of approval the revised opening date would have been April 2022.
For the remaining Centres, the costs and dates for opening will be confirmed on submission and approval of the full business cases.
The Scottish Government is providing a range of recruitment support, as well as training and development activity to assist Health Boards with securing the right mix of new and experienced staff for their NTCs.
We are working with Health Boards to publish NTC workforce data alongside the overall NHS Scotland workforce statistics in June 2023.