Claims NHS isn't 'doing more for less'

NHS Lothian can no longer hide behind the argument that it is doing "more for less", a health board member has said.

For the first time the organisation has revealed its acute hospital activity levels as part of its financial planning.

Those figures show admissions in most departments have dropped over the past three years, despite the population growing and becoming more elderly.

Progress in e-health, which allows patients to keep a closer eye on conditions at home, and NHS 24 have been credited with fewer people coming through hospital doors.

Health board sources said that because admissions to accident and emergency had risen at a "sometimes alarming" rate recently, it gave a false impression that the whole hospital network was busier.

Member George Walker said: "This is a chance for us to refute the argument that we've got too much to do."