There is no crisis in the health service, according to NHS Highland’s departing chairman as the board he presided over for 12 years begins a new era.
As the board prepares for tomorrow’s routine Inverness meeting, Garry Coutts dismissed public concern about persisting financial pressures on the service despite a continuing shortage of GPs and consultants and frequent dependence on locum cover.
After the maximum three terms in office, the former Labour politician has been succeeded by ex Liberal Democrat group leader at Highland Council, David Alston, who has served 12 years himself as a board member.
“Look back at newspaper cuttings since the NHS was first established,” Mr Coutts said, “and you’d think it’s always been in crisis. There was as much concern about it in the 1950s and every subsequent decade.
“The truth is, the NHS has always risen to the challenges and improved care.
“Not everything is perfect and it needs to learn when things go wrong, but for the vast majority of the time it provides a first rate service for most people.”
Mr Coutts sang the praises of Highland’s pioneering integration of health and social care.
“We learned from the best in the world how to train staff to continuously improve performance. I’m confident NHS Highland is in a good position to meet the challenges of the next years and decades,” he said.
He played down the significance of parliamentary grillings over the state of the board’s finances.
Board officials admitted last year to keeping some colleagues “in the dark” over a bail-out deal with the Scottish Government when grilled by Holyrood’s powerful public audit committee.
They admitted making errors in the handling of the finances and vowed there would be no repeat of blunders that prompted the inquiry.
The books were investigated after it emerged in 2014 that the board had to borrow £2.5million from the government to break even.
Mr Coutts said: “The financial difficulty was not particularly significant. It was a small proportion of our budget – less than 0.3% – and if we hadn’t been given the loan we would have taken action to break even.”
Incoming chairman David Alston said: “The next four or five years will herald a significant change.
“It’s increasingly difficult to recruit GPs and consultants. We need different skill mixes and make sure everybody is allowed to work to the top of their abilities.”
Board members will hear tomorrow (TUES) that work on a critical care upgrade for Raigmore Hospital will begin shortly, now a business case has been approved.
NHS Highland chief executive Elaine Mead has reported that the £28million Scottish Government funding is the biggest investment since the hospital was built. The project is scheduled for completion by December 2018.
