Highland Council is being asked to dig deep into its reserves to help finance NHS Highland’s overspend on adult care services.
An increase in the number of older people and young adults with disabilities needing care in the north has led to the local authority being asked to give the health board an extra £14.5million to help finance the services.
On Thursday, Highland councillors will be asked to agree to pay NHS Highland an extra £1million towards services for adults in the region in this financial year.
This would be followed by an additional £4.5million in 2014-15, £4.3million in 2015-16 and £4.7million in 2016-17.
And £4.5million of this money would come from the reserves that the council puts aside as a contingency fund to cover unforeseen circumstances.
Highland politicians warned last night about the dangers of the council eating into its reserves for expenditure that should be budgeted for in the normal way.
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Dave Thompson said: “I have a lot of sympathy with the council when they are looking at making cuts but they need to be very careful if they are beginning to eat into their reserves.
“These are meant to be for unexpected expenses rather than things they should be able to budget for in the normal way.
“I would be concerned if they continued down that road in the future.”
However, Mr Thompson said he remained in favour of the integration of health and social care services, in which NHS Highland took over all adult services and Highland Council assumed total responsibility for children’s services.
Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant said she was concerned the council had reached the point where it needed to use its reserves in this way.
She said: “I think it very worrying that this is what it has come to, but I don’t see they have any choice.
“It’s all very well saving for a rainy day, but it’s pouring now.”
And Highlands and Islands MSP Mary Scanlon said: “I think integration is a good thing. The Highlands have been very brave in pioneering this but that can only work if sufficient funds are transferred.”
She added that she was concerned that the council was having to use contingency funds for adult care services when it should have been able to budget for this expense.
NHS Highland chairman Garry Coutts last night said he was delighted the health board was working in partnership with the council to “agree a way forward”.
He said: “Integration is still undoubtedly the best way to deliver services for the public and the report is a very accurate reflection of the reality.”