THE number of regional boards in the Scottish NHS should be cut in half, Alba MSP Ash Regan has suggested.
Regan, who defected from the SNP in October, has argued that the Scottish Government could “easily halve” the number of executives running the country’s health service.
The Alba MSP said this could save up to £8.6 million annually. She said this could be reinvested into frontline healthcare.
NHS Scotland has 14 regional boards, seven special boards, and one public health body, according to the Scottish Government website.
The regional health boards are:
- NHS Ayrshire & Arran
- NHS Borders
- NHS Dumfries & Galloway
- NHS Fife
- NHS Forth Valley
- NHS Grampian
- NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
- NHS Highland
- NHS Lanarkshire
- NHS Lothian
- NHS Orkney
- NHS Shetland
- NHS Tayside
- NHS Western Isles
Alba said that, across the 14 territorial NHS boards the salaries of the executive management teams total between £12,265,000 and £12,730,000, while the combined costs of payments to board members is between £3,340,000 and £4,555,000.
Regan (below) said: “We do not need 14 separate territorial health boards and seven special health boards for a country the size of Scotland with a population of five million people.
“These figures show that Scotland is spending valuable NHS resources on unnecessary duplication of staff and expensive bureaucracy at the expense of front line patient care.
“If by cutting the number of NHS boards we can reduce the numbers of chief executives, finance directors and other senior managers such as directors of communication, we could easily halve the amount we currently spend on employing senior managers and in paying for board members.
“Halving the amount we currently spend on employing executive management teams across 14 boards and in paying board members would free up between £7,806,500 and £8,642,500. That would be enough to employ an additional 200 newly qualified nurses.
“It makes no sense for smaller health boards to be spending over a million pounds in employing senior managers when that money could be better used to employ nurses, health visitors, midwives, doctors and other health professionals.
“It is long past time for the Scottish Government to carry out a review of the number of health boards in Scotland. I am not advocating centralisation of all functions into one NHS board but rather moving to a smaller number of boards which would allow savings to be made. Those savings could then be re-invested in front line patient care.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “NHS Scotland staffing is at record levels, bolstered by our investment of £18m to recruit 1250 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas. Last week’s Scottish Budget also increased health spending by more than half a billion.
“We are incredibly thankful to the NHS workforce for the vital service they provide and we know they face continued pressure.”
