This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Extra funding for NHS
24/03/2004
An additional £30 million has been announced for Health
Boards to help free up resources for direct patient
care.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said:
"We are entering a momentous year for the NHS in
Scotland. This will see radical changes in a number of
areas but will bring significant improvements where
frontline staff are redesigning services to better serve
their patients.
"That transformation is being spearheaded by the NHS
Reform Bill in abolishing the last bureaucratic vestiges of
the internal market and putting the priority into active
patient involvement at every level.
"Agenda for Change and the new GP and Consultant
contracts also represent the biggest overhaul of staff pay
and conditions since 1948. These in turn will much better
target services for the direct benefit of patients and pay
staff appropriately to use their skills to the full.
"I recognise that the challenges of reform are placing
extra financial burdens on health boards. I have asked the
Health Department to identify savings at the centre so that
we can give front line services additional support. That is
what we promised in the White Paper Partnership for Care
and that is what we are delivering.
"We are already investing record sums in the health
service. That is entirely right. Modern health care is
expensive.
"But it is equally right that we ensure taxpayers' money
is spent on improving patient care, not propping up old
systems which don't serve patients well. We want a can-do
NHS which is more responsive to patients' needs and that is
what the whole reform agenda is about."
Revenue allocations for Health Boards for 2004/05 were
announced in January. These amount to £5.966 billion, an
average increase of 7.25 per cent. A further £26 million
will be distributed later through the Change and Innovation
Fund. Earlier this month the Executive announced record
capital allocations for medical equipment and buildings of
£350 million a 13 per cent increase. Of this sum, almost
£240 million goes directly to Boards.
The breakdown of the £30 million additional funding
allocation is:
Argyll and Clyde - £2.596 million
Ayrshire and Arran - £2.331 million
Borders - £676,000
Dumfries and Galloway - £973,000
Fife - £2.015 million
Forth Valley - £1.585 million
Grampian - £2.725 million
Greater Glasgow - £5.548 million
Highland - £1.390 million
Lanarkshire - £3.206 million
Lothian - £4.054 million
Orkney - £126,000
Shetland - £136,000
Tayside - £2.401 million
Western Isles - £238,000