North East MSP Michael Marra says he will be supporting Scottish Labour’s calls to merge NHS Tayside with five other health boards – despite previously saying such a move would be bad for the people of Dundee.
In 2018 while a Dundee City councillor, Michael Marra told The Courier a “super board” merger would not be in the best interests of those living in the city.
But Scottish Labour now says if they come into power in Holyrood they will merge the health board with NHS Grampian, NHS Highland and the three island health boards.
The party hopes this will save around £20 million and cut red tape.
Despite previously opposing such a move, he now appears to have U-turned on this position, saying Labour’s proposal does “the opposite” of what was mooted in 2018.
‘Radical’ proposals at party conference
At the Scottish Labour party conference in Edinburgh, proposals were put forward to reduce the number of health boards from 14 to just three if they hold the power at Holyrood.
The three proposed health boards would be north, east and west.
Deputy leader and health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said too much money is being spent on bureaucratic management in the NHS, and the savings could be spent on frontline staff instead.
She said: “Each has a chief executive, directors of finance, directors of HR, and an army of spin doctors.
“The cost of that alone is over £20m.
“And as the performance of our NHS has declined, the amount of bureaucracy and the number of managers has soared.
“That is the wrong priority.”
She said the savings from this proposal would pay for over 700 nurses.
Ms Baillie added: “The people of Scotland don’t care where the health board headquarters is based but they do care about being able to access their GP close to home and specialist services at their local hospital.”
‘Our changes do the opposite’
Mr Marra’s comments in 2018 came on the back of the creation of the North of Scotland Planning Group.
This group brought together Tayside, Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles health boards to work together on issues such as access to care in remote communities and workforce pressures.
At the time the SNP government denied it had plans to officially merge the six health boards.
But now Mr Marra says Labour’s plans to merge the health boards would lead to “fundamental reform” and “radical transformation” of Scotland’s NHS.
Speaking to The Courier at the conference, he said: “For too long, reform has meant more layers of management and care becoming ever more remote from patients and communities.
“The reforms rumoured in 2018 are a case in point.
“They lacked clarity, threatened local services and were consigned to the bin where they belonged.
“Our changes do the opposite.”
He added: “We will move care closer to our communities, empower clinicians and focus on supporting frontline staff as they deliver the care we need across the north east and across Scotland.”