Patient care could pay the price as NHS faces £200m efficiency squeeze

Published on Wednesday 9 December 2009 22:05

THE NHS is facing significant financial pressures and will have to make £200 million in savings this year, according to a report published today.

Audit Scotland said health boards had met all their financial targets in 2008-9, with most pledges to improve patient care also achieved.

But their report warned that, with budgets set to be squeezed in future years, the NHS would be under pressure to improve services with less money.

The drive to make efficiency savings of more than 200m in 2009-10 could affect the care provided to patients, the report said.

Robert Black, Auditor General for Scotland, said that Scotland's "deep-seated health-related issues" – such as drug and alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancies – were something the NHS could not deal with alone.

He said other parts of the public sector, such as education and social services, needed to help in dealing with these issues.

The report said that the NHS in Scotland spent 10.6 billion in 2008-9. It said that, following a 38 per cent growth in expenditure in real terms between 2001-2 and 2008-9, the NHS in Scotland now faced tighter financial settlements and budgets are predicted to reduce.

Audit Scotland said the past year had seen a number of pressures on the NHS budget, such as the cost of staff pay deals, increasing drugs and energy costs and reducing junior doctors' hours.

The report said 2009-10 would see a peak in public spending. "Thereafter, there is likely to be a decrease in funding in real terms across the Scottish public sector."

The report said the NHS had to do more to identify efficiencies and improve productivity.

It added that all NHS bodies met 2 per cent efficiency savings in the past financial year, but some had to increase savings to achieve financial balance.

In 2008-9, NHS bodies reported recurring efficiency savings of 149m and 43m in non-recurring savings. In 2009-10 it is forecast that boards will have to make recurring savings of 175m and 25m in non-recurring.

"This presents a significant challenge for many NHS bodies, and their auditors have stated that it will be difficult for some to achieve the required level of savings without any negative impact on the services they provide," the report said.

Audit Scotland said the NHS faced several pressures, such as the ageing population.

Another potential cost could arise from equal-pay claims made by female employees, if these cases are settled in the coming years.

Yesterday, opposition parties voiced concern over the news. Liberal Democrat health spokesman Ross Finnie expressed fears over the 200m efficiency savings the NHS was expected to make.

"This is a stark warning that the SNP's cuts to the NHS budget could start to affect patient care as early as next year," he said.

Jackie Baillie, Labour health spokeswoman, added: "200m is a vast sum of money to cut from the NHS budget, and there is no doubt frontline services will be at risk."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said the NHS was operating within budget and beating efficiency savings targets.

"There's no doubt the entire public sector faces a challenging climate, but the Scottish Government's draft budget for 2010-11 has protected health spending, which is set to rise to 11.347bn," she said.

"While we cannot predict the public-spending environment beyond the next spending review, NHS Scotland is working hard now to become leaner and more efficient so that we are prepared to deal with whatever lies ahead."