Letters / Carmichael correct on NHS
Brian Nugent (NHS Funding; SN, 28/04/15) criticises Alistair Carmichael for suggesting NHS Shetland has been “short-changed” by the SNP Scottish government and cites a letter from NHS Shetland chairman Ian Kinniburgh as evidence, saying:
“The letter spelt out that NHS Shetland was not being short changed.”
“It was quite a technical letter. Either the LibDems did not read it or did not understand the letter because the same “short-changed” accusation is made in Alistair Carmichael’s election communication.”
Okay. Let’s consider what Mr Kinniburgh actually wrote (Best financial deal; SN, 10/03/15):
Explaining first that the new funding allocation formula, introduced in 2009/2010 suggested NHS Shetland was being overpaid by £2million per annum, he stated:
“When the current funding formula (NRAC) was first introduced in 2009/10 NHS Shetland was deemed to be receiving £2M a year more in funding than was calculated as our fair share. We continued to receive this notional “additional” funding above our “fair share” for a number of years.”
Okay. Application of a “new formula” for fund allocation, introduced by the SNP Scottish government in 2009/2010, had determined that Shetland was receiving £2 million per annum too much and this extra money would continue to be paid, subject to erosion over time, until Shetland’s funding was back in line with its supposed “fair share”.
NHS Shetland, believing the formula failed to reflect the geographic and demographic difficulties faced by remote rural communities, did not accept this outcome. Mr Kinniburgh continued:
“We strongly felt that the (2009/2010) formula was not adequately recognising all of the additional costs of providing services in Shetland or in other remote and rural parts of Scotland. This matter was highlighted by Health Board Chairs and Chief Executives to the Cabinet Secretary and Government officials and agreement was reached to re-examine the funding formula to reflect our concerns.”
“Therefore over the past few years a number of staff in the Board, along with colleagues in other remote and rural areas of Scotland have been quietly but effectively working to ensure that the updates to the formula correctly recognises our situation. As the changes recommended from this work have been included in the formula we have now moved to the position where Shetland’s calculated target allocation has increased by £4.01M and the Board moving from receiving more than our fair share, to the current situation where in next year’s budget setting we can reasonably anticipate a relatively greater increase.”
So, following appeal and rigorous examination over several years, Shetland’s “fair share” allocation has been increased by £4 million per annum, a massive achievement by the NHS Shetland negotiators.
In other words, NHS Shetland was never receiving £2 million per annum too much; they have instead been receiving £2 million per annum too little, for more than five years.
Mr Kinniburgh did not, in fact, deny that NHS Shetland had been “short-changed”, he merely pointed out to Tavish Scott that the health board, far from meekly accepting the situation, had successfully sought redress in private.
It follows that Alistair Carmichael is correct to say that NHS Shetland has been “short-changed” during the SNP’s tenure in government, apparently, to the tune of about £10 million over the past five years.
John Tulloch
Lyndon
Arrochar
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