Joint health board for Borders facing £7m shortfall due to virus

The financial cost of contending with coronavirus in the Borders has been revealed in a report to health chiefs this week.
NHS Borders finance chief Andrew Bone.NHS Borders finance chief Andrew Bone.
NHS Borders finance chief Andrew Bone.

The region’s health and social care integrated joint board, a partnership between Scottish Borders Council and NHS Borders, is facing a financial overspend of £7.359m.

Last financial year, the board spent £11.5m on combatting coronavirus, and it has run up a further bill of £2.5m in the first quarter of this year.

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The board has been bailed out before by NHS Borders and the council, receiving £6.255m and £883,000 respectively from them last year.

Now, a meeting of the board has been told it’s on course to need financial help again as it is forecasting an overspend of £7.359m.

A report sent to board members ahead of their meeting today, September 23, via video-link reads: “Additional costs of Covid-19 to date, together with the opportunity cost of undeliverable financial plan savings, continue to outweigh any financial benefit and reduced cost within core operational services attributable to a reduction in activity during the initial months of the pandemic.

“This position may be mitigated considerably when a clearer picture of likely funding allocations from the Scottish Government emerges.

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“It is expected that at the time of reporting next to the board, some clarity will have been given, at least for the first quarter of the financial year.”

Appearing at that meeting, Andrew Bone, chief financial officer for NHS Borders, said: “The forecast deficit relates to the NHS functions.

“There’s basically three major components of that.

“The biggest element is in relation to the non-delivery of savings. Basically, £4.3m of the NHS forecast relates to non-delivery of savings.

“On top of that, we have the Covid expenditure. There are substantial costs against Covid. All of the allocations have been directed very much at the social care elements of the partnership.

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“We’re still awaiting confirmation of any NHS allocations. We’re hoping that will make a material difference.

“The core position of the NHS at the moment is slightly underspent. There’s actually a slight underspend if you exclude Covid spending.

“I think it’s reasonable to assume there will be a financial pressure at the end of the year that the board will have to have plans to address, and that’s subject to ongoing discussion with the Scottish Government.

“I’m not in a position at this stage to say that we can deliver, or support the board to deliver, a break-even.”