A north-east council has been ordered to pay more than £1million to another authority to foot the bill for one person’s healthcare costs.
The Scottish Government has ruled in favour of Highland Council following a 20-year dispute over which organisation had responsibility to pay for a care package for a patient with extremely complex needs.
The individual, who has not been identified, had been living in the Highlands but had moved to Aberdeenshire in 1998.
However in the years since the Highland authority had continued to pay for his care and had challenged this with Scottish ministers.
In autumn, Aberdeenshire Council learned that the government had ruled against it meaning it would have to fork out £593, 068.754 in backdated costs.
The decision stated the patient had been “ordinarily resident” in the region since 2003.
But this week it emerged these fees had been reviewed and had been increased to £1,071,810.
The council will have to pay the lion’s share of this amount, £955,655, while the integration joint board, which oversees the work of the health and social care partnership, will have to pay the rest.
The issue was discussed at the full council meeting on Thursday, as part of the revenue budget monitoring report.
Councillor Richard Thomson, Ellon and District ward, acknowledged that the ruling was unfortunate for the authority.
“The decision from Scottish ministers is one of the less welcome ones we have had but nevertheless the care needs to be provided and to be funded,” he said.
Meanwhile, Councillor Martin Ford, East Garioch ward, said the decision was just “the way the cookie crumbles”.
He said: “After a long-running dispute over who has to pick up the bill it’s Aberdeenshire which has to do it, another time it might be a different local authority.
“It’s just the way the cookie crumbles but it’s not something be upset about as paying these costs is something the council does.”
Aberdeenshire Council declined to comment on the ministers’ decision.