The alarm bells sounding in the North Lanarkshire Health Board can be heard across the NHS in Scotland.
The shocking truth is that NHS Lanarkshire is facing a £70million budget black hole after declaring a staffing and bed shortage crisis. The board has issued a “code black” alert, which means quite simply that 600,000 people are in danger of not having their health needs met by the NHS.
Lanarkshire is one of Scotland’s biggest health boards, it cannot be allowed to fail. It is likely the situation is the tip of a very large NHS iceberg as the service strains under the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic and increasing day to day costs. Part of the reason the health board claims to find itself in trouble is that it received far less Covid cash support than it expected.
