News / Sturgeon boosts spend and focuses on repairs

Scotland’s territorial health boards will receive an overall 2.9% increase in their revenue funding for 2012/13, it has been confirmed.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said uplifts for individual boards in 2012/13 would vary between 2.2% and 4.2% and they will share a further £32m in order to move them towards their target allocations under the National Resource Allocation Committee formula.

In addition, indicative figures showed revenue funding is likely to increase by 3.3% in 2013/14 and by 3.1% in 2014/15.

Special health board allocations ranged from a 3% increase (Scottish Ambulance Service) to a fall of 4.2% (Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS Health Scotland)

Ms Sturgeon added that £21.6m would be invested to support the transfer of prison healthcare services to the NHS, while a further £10m would help support the Adult Social Care Change Fund, where the NHS works with local authorities on the redesign of health and social care services

She said it was important to continue investing in frontline health services. ‘Sustained investment in our national health service will ensure boards continue to have the necessary resources to bring about real benefits to both patients and staff, and that we can deliver a first-class service to patients across the country.’

Ms Sturgeon also launched a plan to tackle backlog maintenance costs across the healthcare estate. A comprehensive survey, State of the estate said the £1bn maintenance costs included more than £350m of work needed in non-medical areas and buildings for sale.

The health minister announced capital funding for the next three years and said £2bn of capital funding would be invested over the four years of the spending review period. This included around £300m to address a maintenance backlog.

‘For the first time, we have a detailed account of the ongoing maintenance work needed on the NHS estate. This will allow us to set a benchmark from which to work to continue to maintain our NHS buildings,’ she said.

However, Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Jackie Baillie, said: ‘It is clear that the necessary investment is not being made and our hospitals are being left in a dire state of disrepair.

‘I have real concerns about the impact this will have on staff morale and patient care.’?