Shake-up call over NHS cash

BUDGETS for NHS health boards should be measured over five-year periods to cut the chances of inequalities, a city patients group has said.

The NHS Resource Allocation Committee, which leaves NHS Lothian with a 55 million budget black hole, is re-set every year. But the Royal Edinburgh Hospital Patients Council said a longer-term strategy would give health boards certainty and aid building projects.

Its interest lies in the Morningside psychiatric hospital, which has been promised a rebuild for years without any action being taken.