Are SNP's plans to cut NHS health boards turning into second National Care Service fiasco?
The SNP’s plans to improve NHS efficiency were welcome but there are worrying signs they have not been properly thought through
There has been some confusion since the SNP’s stunning announcement that the number of territorial NHS health boards will be cut from 14 to two as part of a drive to improve government efficiency.
On further investigation, it seems the plan is to replace the 11 mainland health boards with two, and make other arrangements, possibly involving mergers with local councils, for Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.
Asked to clarify which – a reduction of 14 to two or 11 to two – represented the correct position, a Scottish Government source tentatively suggested “both”. We’re not convinced a mathematician would agree, but it may depend on your views about the nature of existence and whether the island health boards are being replaced or disappearing into the ether.
Either way, saying 14 certainly makes it sound more radical, and 14 to five, which some may suggest is possibly closer to the reality, might have seemed a bit half-hearted.
‘No modelling, no detail’
Other details have been scant. Speaking to a Scottish Parliament committee, Public Service Reform Secretary Ivan McKee said there would be “significant financial savings” but refused to put a figure on the number of job losses. Unions have suggested the figure could run into tens of thousands.
McKee insisted “quite a bit of work has been done” but said “the details” were still being fleshed out, adding: “The scale of this is that you will never know all the answers to everything.”
It raises the alarming suggestion that the plans could already be starting to unravel. Are we about to see a repeat of the National Care Service fiasco?
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser was unimpressed, telling McKee: “It all sounds like you came up with this idea on the back of a fag packet and you haven’t actually done any work to back it up... there’s no modelling, there’s no detail, there are no targets for savings by department.”
However, there is one obvious target: to close the near £5 billion budget black hole expected in the Scottish Government’s finances by 2030. On that matter, the SNP really will need to find “all the answers” – and their sums will need to add up.
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