NHS Scotland health board extends funds plea to public to plug 'unprecedented' £33m deficit

The health board said current saving measures do not go far enough to meet Scottish Government requirements.

An NHS health board has issued an urgent plea to the public to help it cover a multi-million pound deficit.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway (NHS D&G) said the move was to help it plug a £33.6 million gap between the funding available and what is needed to maintain services in their existing form this financial year.

The health board is leaning on public support, having launched a campaign to urge people to only order the medicine they need to save pennies.

Between April 2024 and January 2025 alone, NHS Scotland delivered 56,500 diagnostic procedures, nearly 9200 surgeries, and over 9800 outpatient appointments, significantly improving access to treatment, says Angus Robertson

NHS D&G said medicine waste was estimated to cost the board more than £1m a year and that savings of £4m could be released from medicine efficiencies alone.

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The board said it had already agreed on decisive measures to reduce the financial gap, but stressed those steps had not gone far enough to meet the requirements of the Scottish Government.

It has set an ambitious target of achieving 5 per cent savings each year, including 3 per cent recurring savings, which equates to £21.3m for 2025/26.

NHS D&G’s director of finance Katy Kerr said to reach these targets, the health board was asking for everyone’s help “as every pound in our region that is wasted is a pound that can’t be used for frontline healthcare”.

“These are undoubtedly very difficult times for NHS D&G,” she said. “The budget for NHS D&G is not part of an unlimited national pot — it is a fixed local budget.

“The health board is obliged to deliver services within the budget allocated to it from Scottish Government. We’ve now agreed a plan aimed at keeping our essential services running while we transition to new approaches informed by our budget.”

Ms Kerr added: “Every pound wasted on medication is a pound that could be spent on doctors, nurses or hospital care. We don’t have an unlimited resources — if it’s spent on something unnecessary, it’s not there for something essential.”

The board said saving money in the short term, however, was not enough and the system needed to become more efficient. It pointed to the impact of people remaining in hospital longer than necessary while they await social care packages.

Interim chairwoman for the board, Marsali Caig, said she was disappointed at the lack of additional investment into social care during the recent local authority budget-settlement process.

Ms Caig said: “Given our big challenge in getting people out of hospital who no longer need to be here, and the flow through our hospital services with delayed transfers of care and lack of capacity in social care, I’m disappointed in the settlement.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “We are providing over £14.2 billion for NHS Boards in 2024-25 to support services, a real terms increase of almost 3%.

“Despite our significant investment, the financial climate remains extremely challenging. The UK Government’s spring statement set out health consequentials of £237 million - less than the £470m in-year health funding received for 2023-24 and less than is needed given the pressures faced. In this context, we are continuing to work with each health board to recover and reform services and address the financial challenge this year and beyond.”

NHS D&G fell victim to a major cyber attack last year. Hackers managed to access a huge amount of information, including confidential details on patients and staff, in February 2024.

The health board said it was "in no way complacent" about its data security nearly 12 months later and staff were now required to undertake a mandatory programme of cyber security and information governance training on an annual basis.

Police Scotland said its inquiries into the attack were ongoing.