Poor funding threat to war on superbugs

Published on 20/08/2010 15:10

A LACK of funding is posing a "major risk" to fighting superbugs in Lothians hospitals, health chiefs have warned.

NHS Lothian currently has a 70 million funding black hole because of the way Scottish Government funding favours other areas of the country.

And in a report on hospital acquired infections (HAI) from NHS Lothian, it is warned that this means local health chiefs are less able to channel resources into reducing infections like MRSA and C.diff.

Rona Broom, acting head of service for infection control, said in the report that the funding formula used by Holyrood - the NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) - was a major stumbling block. In addition, a change in the way superbug cash is distributed is also set to have an impact.

She said: "In line with NHS Lothian's NRAC position, the resources deployed to address HAI are lower than for comparable boards. The major risk to our continued efforts is the transfer of funding from recurrent to non-recurrent budgets."

It is the latest revelation that puts into context the disparity in funding between Glasgow and Edinburgh.