Struggling health boards in the north of Scotland have been underfunded to the tune millions of pounds over the past decade, with a concerned MSP claiming such shortfalls could continue for many years.
The amount of funding which should be made available by the Scottish Government for each of Scotland’s 14 health boards is decided by the NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC).
It decides which region should get how much money using a formula based on each area’s needs.
That formula takes into account factors including the age and gender composition of its population and the additional costs of delivering healthcare to rural communities.
But in the NHS Grampian area, which incorporates Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray, the funding made available for the health board has been below the NRAC’s target every year since 2009/10.
Although the annual amount of cash given to the health board by the government has gone up in recent years, over the course of the period there has been a shortfall of £239.2 million.
In the Highlands, from 2009/10 to 2012/13, the government exceeded the NRAC’s target allocations.
Subsequent years have, however, left NHS Highland underfunded – resulting in an overall shortfall of £2.8 million.
In contrast, funding allocations for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been above NRAC targets every year for the past decade.
As a result, the health board is £551 million in the black.
Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles, who represents the north-east region, said: “The Scottish Government has consistently failed to meet its responsibility to fund our health care services in the north-east using its own funding formula.
“Under the current distribution of NHS funding, that looks set to continue for at least another three years.
“The situation for our local health board is appalling and still the Scottish Government refuses to provide the resources needed to put NHS Grampian on an equal footing with the rest of Scotland.”
An NHS Grampian spokesman said the board continued to work closely with the Scottish Government to secure “funding in line with our NRAC target allocation”.
“The position has improved significantly over recent years and we welcome the positive steps that have been taken,” he added.
“The NRAC formula is refreshed each year. NHS Grampian is now within 0.8% of our target NRAC allocation in line with Scottish Government policy in this area.”
NHS Highland’s director of finance, David Garden, added: “We recognise and welcome the current policy that all boards who are under their NRAC share will remain funded within 1% of their target.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “In 2019-20, for the second year running, NHS Grampian received the highest percentage funding increase of any area health board in Scotland – this increase of £28.1 million takes NHS Grampian’s total budget for this year to £957.9 million.
“Since 2015-16, NHS Grampian has received more than £56 million in recurring baseline funding from Scottish Government with the specific purpose of accelerating parity and, as a result, is now within 0.8% of its target allocation.
“We’ve also made additional funding of £11.2 million available to NHS Grampian in 2019/20 to support work to tackle waiting times and we’re investing £200 million in a network of new elective and diagnostic treatment centres which will add extra capacity for hip and knee replacement patients, including one based at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.”