One of Scotland’s most senior health officials has intervened to ensure NHS Tayside scraps plans to quietly scale back surgery in a bid to mask its own financial difficulties.
John Burns, chief operating officer of NHS Scotland, spoke with bosses at the board this week to insist “patient safety must be prioritised”.
But NHS Tayside has been accused of trying to “pull the wool over the eyes of the public” after repeatedly refusing to set out how and when plans will be changed.
Staff have also reportedly not been told of the about-turn.
What were managers planning?
Last week we revealed managers proposed to reduce the number of procedures being carried out to avoid direct intervention from the government.
NHS Tayside is on track for a £39 million financial black hole this year and could be plunged into special measures from April.
It would mean an external team is appointed to help run services.
An internal email leaked to The Courier set out how bosses would pare back work until the next financial year to hide the full extent of the board’s money woes.
‘No plans to reduce care’
North East MSP Michael Marra wrote to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon asking her to make an “immediate intervention” for the sake of patients.
In response, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf confirmed Mr Burns has spoken with NHS Tayside chief executive Grant Archibald.
He said Mr Archibald has “given assurances that NHS Tayside will continue to utilise its bed and theatre capacity to maximise the delivery of planned care across Ninewells, PRI and Stracathro”.
Mr Yousaf confirmed there are “no plans to reduce elective care“.
He added: “I can also advise that the chief executive will write to colleagues in the board to clarify the position in case there is any ambiguity about the position as a result of the email communication in question.”
Mr Marra said staff still had not been made aware of the U-turn on Tuesday and warned it will take time for procedures to get back on track.
“Staff are telling me that they are relieved the policy has been dropped but they are still awaiting confirmation from management so that work can get back on track,” he said.
“They say that restarting theatre work does take time, with patients having to be sent for and technical preparations made.
“Restarting care is urgent and I know staff will be responding swiftly as soon as the about-turn is confirmed to them.”
NHS Tayside ‘refuses to be transparent’
We asked NHS Tayside to confirm the actions set out in the email to consultants would not be going ahead in any capacity.
We also asked it to confirm procedures are now being carried out and planned at the same level as before the email was sent.
And we asked what contact the Scottish Government has had with NHS Tayside in regards to end of year finances.
In a more than 400-word response, the health board failed to address the questions and did not respond to attempts to seek clarification.
A spokesperson confirmed elective operations “will continue to be delivered in accordance with our 2022-23 elective operational plan, which was agreed in April 2022”.
They said: “To reiterate the Tayside position, over the past few weeks we experienced an increase in surgical activity which included a spike in the number of orthopaedic trauma patients.
“This happened at the same time as extraordinary levels of flu and a rise in Covid patients in hospital, and this was on top of our normal winter demand.
“As a result, we opened a significant number of additional beds across medical and surgical wards so we could cope with that increase in demand, which altered the usual footprints for medicine and surgery.
“In line with the steps set out in our winter plan, these beds are now being safely retracted as flu and Covid levels stabilise and the trauma patients are discharged, meaning we can reduce the number of extra beds we had to open.”
The spokesperson said there are “regular meetings” with the Scottish Government to discuss finances but would not provide any details of these.
A ‘deeply problematic culture’
The response was branded “ridiculous”.
Mr Marra said: “To deny that the changes were made when they were emailed to staff by senior management is just an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.
“This is representative of a deeply problematic culture in the leadership of the board where they refuse to be frank and transparent with public over the challenges NHS Tayside faces.
“People deserve to know the truth about the service they pay for and that they rely on.
“Patients must also know what to expect in terms of their waits for care and the reasons for this.”
Conversation