Scottish budget takes ‘small steps’ in health when ‘bolder action is needed’

Health and social care - Wordskills

Doctors and third sector have warned that measures in Derek Mackay’s budget to address funding gaps in health and social care will need more long-term solutions.

 Among measures announced by Finance Secretary Derek Mackay was an additional £304m in resource funding for the NHS, £120m above inflation, including £72m investment in “improvements to primary care and GP services” and £107m further investment in social care.

“This budget delivers the Government’s commitment to secure the future of Scotland’s health service,” said Mackay.

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Figures this month showed there were 1,576 patients delayed in hospital beds October, a rise from 1,524 people in September and a steady increase from 1,280 patients waiting for discharge in October 2015.

Doctors’ union the BMA warned pressures on the NHS were “unprecedented”.

BMA Scotland national director Jill Vickerman, said: “The additional resources for the NHS announced today will go some way towards slowing the acceleration of the growing funding gap, but it is clear that these are long-term pressures which the NHS is increasingly struggling to manage.

 “As people live longer lives, more and more people are living with chronic illnesses and often have complex care needs. It is essential that the NHS is equipped to deal with these challenges in the years and decades to come.”

Of the £72m investment for primary care, Dr Alan McDevitt, chair of the BMA’s Scottish GP Committee said it was a “small step” towards addressing problems in the profession.

“It is essential that this investment provides direct support to GP practices and helps to once again make being a GP an attractive option for those starting a career in medicine,” he said.

“In the longer term, we are working with the Scottish Government towards a new GP contract that will be based upon a wider team of healthcare professionals working in the community and it is clear that significantly more resources are going to be needed to deliver this once an agreement has been reached.”

RCGP Scotland chair Dr Miles Mack said it was encouraging to see the long term decline in GP funding reversed but added there was “a long way to go”.

“We will be meeting with Scottish government next week to discuss how general practice can be further protected and can build on this announcement, so that GPs can keep going and so that students see general practice for what it should be, a valued and prized jewel in the crown of the NHS, with a secure future,” he said.

Ian Welsh, chief executive of the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE), which represents the third sector, welcomed the £107m additional funding for social care but warned “much stronger momentum and transformative thinking is needed” to tackle persistent problems in the integrated health and social care system.

“Integrated working has the potential to radically improve outcomes for people with long term conditions, disabled people and unpaid carers, but to achieve this public bodies must invest strongly to embed new and inclusive ways of working,” he said.

The budget will pass through the committee stages before being voted on in February.