Edinburgh health: NHS Lothian cuts, halt to new building projects and staff freeze condemned as 'unacceptable'

Scottish Government measures mean key projects will be ‘delayed for years’

Massive cuts facing NHS Lothian as a result of last week's Scottish Budget have been condemned as "unacceptable".

Lothian is being required to make savings of 6.8 per cent in the coming financial year, more than double the annual savings of recent years.

The Scottish Government has also told health boards across Scotland that there will be no funding for new building projects for at least the next two years, meaning a halt to progress on three key projects in Lothian – the promised new eye hospital at Little France, a new cancer centre at the Western General and the elective treatment centre at St John's Hospital, Livingston. And the government has also made clear there will have to be a recruitment freeze.

NHS Lothian is facing having to make savings of 6.8 per cent next year, as well as a two-year block on new building projects and a recruitment freeze. Picture: Tony Marsh.

Lothian Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said: “These massive cuts to NHS Lothian services are unacceptable. NHS Lothian is already facing huge financial pressures as the lowest funded health board per head of population in Scotland.

“These SNP cuts mean the urgently needed new Eye Pavilion will be delayed for years, as well as the new cancer centre at the Western General and the Elective Treatment Centre at St John’s in Livingston, impacting on patient health.

"The cuts will also mean huge pressures on NHS staff, leading to even longer waiting lists for vital operations as Lothian’s population is predicted to grow by 84 per cent over the next decade.”

And Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs said there appeared to be a lack of long-term planning in NHS by the government.

He said: "These projects are not something you do year by year, you need to plan infrastructure over the next decade and they are delivered with funding stretched over a period of time. It seems the Scottish Government is being quite cack-handed in what it's trying to do with infrastructure in the NHS estate.

"Ministers need to be mindful of the fact NHS Lothan is the lowest-funded health board and we have been for too long. And having to make bigger cuts will have consequences, as we know being the lowest-funded board already does - we have a quarter of all delayed discharges in NHS Lothian. Ministers need to understand the pressures already facing Lothian financially."

Mr Briggs acknowledged there had been a 10 per cent reduction in capital funding from Westminster to the Scottish Government, but he said the SNP "have to be accountable for the decisions they take".

The scale of the cuts facing NHS Lothian were revealed in the Evening News last week. A source told the paper the health board had never been in a worse situation. "The government has offered assurances they will meet the cost of frontline services, but other than that the message to health boards from the government is basically 'You're on your own'.”