Health bill snarl-up threatens businesses

Scottish Government guidelines state public sector bodies should pay ten days after billing to avoid being charged interest at taxpayers’ expense.

The Forum of Private Business said many businesses could be forced to close as a result of delays in payment by health boards.

Phil McCabe, FPB senior policy adviser, said it was “disgraceful some of these boards are not able or willing to pay promptly despite having been given years to sort out their acts”.

He added: “The simple truth is late payment forces firms out of business, and public bodies that fail to pay up are driving another nail into the coffin.”

Figures show every mainland health board has failed to hit the target, the best performing being NHS Dumfries and Galloway which paid 93 per cent of bills within ten days last year. NHS Lothian trails the table, making payments to just over half, 54 per cent, of its suppliers within ten days last year.

It was the second year in a row the board performed the worst, figures for 2010-11 show just 39 per cent of bills were paid on time. On average only 73 per cent of bills were paid within the stipulated time limit.

Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown said patients expected more from health chiefs.

The Lothian MSP said: “I think we are entitled to expect a higher standard. So too should the local companies they do business with.

“NHS Lothian needs to explain why its performance on this is considerably poorer than every other mainland health board, particularly those of a comparable size.”

Susan Goldsmith, director of finance at NHS Lothian, said: “There is some differentiation in the way health boards record the dates when invoices are paid. Many organisations prefer to use the date when the invoice is received, but NHS Lothian uses the date on the invoice.

“If we chose to follow other organisations, the numbers of bills paid within ten days would stand at 91 per cent.”