Highlands lose £20m of health funding

HEALTH projects in parts of the Highlands will be shelved after the Scottish government withdrew £20 million the local health board thought it had banked.

Last month the government told health boards they will no longer be able to claim money which they kept for earmarked schemes that had yet to begin.

Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant, who has been investigating the move, has been told by the board's chief executive Roger Gibbins that unless schemes are already legally committed or specifically mentioned in the government's Budget then they will not progress through public capital funding.

This will have an impact on day surgery services at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, renal provision at Raigmore and Invergordon, work at MacKinnon Memorial Hospital on Skye, and dental services in Portree and Oban.