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The truths they don't want you to read....

Friday, May 01, 2009

Health Board funding

Read the press release from the Government very, very, carefully.
The Scottish Government will continue its work to assist the Board, which is now also supported by its partner Board, NHS Highland, in areas including human resources, governance and planning.
The loss of control to NHS Highland is now structuralised, with the Western Isles a branch office, with some autonomy.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Today's brokerage agreement is testimony to the Scottish Government's commitment to patients in the Western Isles."
Brokerage agreement? What the hell is that?
Although the Board will have to repay the brokerage over the six financial years beginning in 2012-13, today's agreement gives the Board a clean slate and allows it to build on its recent improved performance.
Oh! A loan of £3.1m over 6 years, which means repayments of £500,000 each and every year.

And where does that money come from if not from cuts efficiency savings.

Which makes the recent appointment of a one-time vociferous critic of cuts, all the more an obvious act of political neutering. Bloody devious, aren't they?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So does this mean that there's a plan in place to merge the two boards into one covering H&I's? If a merger is on the cards, would Glasgow not have better comminications?

Unknown said...

Angus,

I think if you put a little bit of interpretation to it I would not be surprised if NHS Highland was guaranteed a top up on their budget starting 2012/13 or even earlier worth 3.1 Mio. I could very well imagine that the books are being balanced in order to ease the take-over. (NHS Highland would not want to takeover WIHB with 3 Mio debt). I think the action taken by the Scottish Government taken together with recent appointments are very, very significant.

Unknown said...

Anonymous,

I don't think that Glasgow would be too keen to take over WIHB.

Anonymous said...

Christoph said he thiought the recent appointments are very significant. I would agree, They would not have been made if the plab was to shut the board down. This partnership tyhat has been mentioned is in place for all island boards to enable all of them to access more experience. Nothing less nothing more.

Unknown said...

I have never said that anybody wants to shut down the board. In fact the board is needed to facilitate the changes to come. The question is what degree of autonomy will the board enjoy in the future and who will decide on the service re-structuring which will be inevitable to re-pay the loan.