05.10.18
Ministers to write off £150m of NHS debt in new deal
The Scottish Government will write off £150m of debt owed by NHS health boards – including the troubled NHS Tayside, which alone owes £45m and is expecting a £17m deficit this year – as part of a new financial framework drawn up by ministers.
Health secretary Jeane Freeman said the new deal will give the health boards more flexibility to continue delivering good-quality care, adding that they will also be required to set out finance and improvement plans that break even over the next three years.
Over the years, NHS boards have received loans – known as brokerage – from the Scottish Government to fill funding gaps. The health secretary has now announced that these loans will not be recouped in order to give the health boards a “clean slate” from 2019-20.
Freeman said: “Today I am offering NHS boards a new deal. In return for their efforts to deliver the reforms for the future I am facilitating a new three-year financial planning and performance framework for our NHS territorial boards.
“This change will require boards to deliver a breakeven position over a three-year period, rather than annually as is the case currently. In each year boards will have a 1% flexibility on their annual resource budget to allow them scope to marginally under or over spend in that year.
“For this new deal to be successful I believe it needs a new start. So to give all our territorial boards clear ground to move forward on that three-year planning cycle, I will not seek to recover NHS territorial boards’ outstanding brokerage - the expenditure incurred by Territorial Boards over the last five years which has been above their budget.
“I want all boards to be able to focus their attention on delivering the measures set out in the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan and this Financial Framework, and to do so in a safe and appropriate way - making sure they maintain a strong focus on patient care and the delivery of the services to patients that is safe, effective, person-centred – and timely.”
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