Lothian gets £30m boost to ease health funds divide

HEALTH chiefs in the Lothians have been handed a £30 million boost to help address Scotland's chronic funding divide.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced NHS Lothian would get an extra 3.14 per cent – the biggest increase for any health board in Scotland – to take its budget to more than 1 billion.

The move comes just a month after the Evening News highlighted Scotland's growing health divide, which sees health chiefs in Glasgow with 440 more per head of population to spend than those in the Lothians, leading to fears that patients and services in the east are suffering.

Ms Sturgeon said today's announcement meant health boards across Scotland would together receive a record 8.464bn, with the extra cash prioritised for frontline services.

She said: "This above-inflation increase means health boards will have the resources they need to progress their plans and ensure that patients continue to be put at the heart of the NHS."

The Evening News previously revealed that NHS Lothian had less money to spend per patient in the current year than any other Scottish health board because of the outdated formula used to calculate funding.

Calculations showed each person in the Lothians would have around 1,444 spent on them this year, compared with 1,888 in Glasgow, 1,776 in Tayside and 1,605 in Fife.

In 2003, the difference between Edinburgh and Glasgow was 300 per head of population.

Today, Ms Sturgeon gave NHS Lothian around 30m extra in revenue funding for 2010-11, taking the total to 1.018 bn.

The 3.14 per cent increase is well above the average 2.73 per cent rise. And it compares with a 2.55 per cent increase for Glasgow and Tayside and 2.8 per cent for Fife.

The Government is gradually phasing out the old Arbuthnott formula, which was based mainly on deprivation, and moving to a new formula drawn up by the NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee. Lothian should be the biggest winner under the new system, which takes more account of growing population.

Today's cash share-out accounts for the bulk of Scotland's 11.35bn health budget, which is up by 2.4 per cent on last year.

The allocation of the remaining funds, which support family health services, capital programmes and specific projects to achieve key nations targets, is expected to be announced within the next few weeks.