Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

NHS Highland must take urgent action to tackle series of challenges

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman

NHS Highland must make urgent changes to deal with its “complex” problems, including a failure to make multi-million pound savings, staff shortages and bullying.

The plea was made by Auditor General Caroline Gardner in a damning report which cast doubt on the health board’s ability to get a grip on the situation.

The 2018/19 Audit of NHS Highland also identified drugs and care overspends as well as a rising locum bill as challenges facing the organisation.

Given NHS Highland’s past record in addressing problems, the document said there were “concerns about the board’s capacity to bring about the necessary change”.

Local MSPs were alarmed at the report’s conclusion that NHS Highland needed “extra support” to meet its challenges.

Highland Tory MSP Donald Cameron said the Auditor General was “losing confidence in the board’s capacity to sort out its problems”.

“It is imperative that Jeane Freeman, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, takes immediate action to reassure local people that this crisis is being properly tackled,” he added.

Labour Highland MSP Dave Stewart described the situation as “very worrying” and warned that recruitment problems put “terrible stress” on staff.

The document pointed out NHS Highland had identified savings of £50.5 million in 2018/19.

But the board only realised planned savings of £26.6 million and a further £5.9 million from other savings and benefits.

As a result, NHS Highland required Scottish Government loans of £18 million to meet its financial targets.

The report said the board was “not in a good position” to sort out financial challenges on time.

Achieving a break-even position by 2021/22 appeared “unrealistic” based on NHS Highland’s past record.

Drug overspends came to £3.6 million while social care overspends came to £4.3 million.

The report said there were also “high levels” of unfilled vacancies in key clinical posts.

This created a reliance on locum staff. Spending on locums came to £15.6 million in 2018/19, up from £14.9 million in 2017/18 and £14.7 million the previous year.

Changes to the senior management team and board had been accompanied by recruitment difficulties in key posts.

Earlier this year, John Sturrock QC published a report into NHS Highland bullying which concluded hundreds of workers had experienced inappropriate behaviour.

Leadership, resources and commitment were required to bring about the culture change required to tackle the problem.

Ms Gardner said: “NHS Highland urgently needs a clear and achievable plan to redesign services.

“This must go beyond the series of short-term fixes we have seen in the past.”

An NHS Highland spokeswoman acknowledged the “significant challenge” faced by the board, but said various steps were in place to meet them including a programme of financial improvement measures.

There were also renewed efforts to deal with care, prescribing and locum costs as well as responding to the Sturrock report.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Investment in our health services has grown by six per cent above inflation over the last ten years, and now exceeds £14 billion this year.”

She added that NHS Highland’s budget had increased by 2.9% to £627.5 million.