Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Public audit committee gearing up to grill NHS Highland bosses

Garry Coutts, the former chairman of NHS Highland.
Garry Coutts, the former chairman of NHS Highland.

Bosses of NHS Highland face a public grilling over their financial management of the health board.

Four senior members of the health board will give evidence to the Public Audit Committee after the auditors said there was weakness in their financial management in 2013/14. And in November, the audit committee accused NHS Highland bosses of “gross misconduct” over their handling of the authority’s finances.

Massive overspends at the north’s flagship hospital, Raigmore in Inverness, were a major factor in NHS Highland requiring a £2.5million loan from the Scottish Government so that it could break even.

The meeting will start at 9.30am on Monday February 2, the council’s HQ at Glenurquhart Road.

Those giving evidence include chairman Garry Coutts, chief executive Elaine Mead, director of finance Nick Kenton and chief internal auditor Chris Brown.

Ms Mead and Mr Kenton were also said to have treated board members “like mushrooms” by keeping them in the dark about the need for a bailout until the last minute.

NHS Highland board members said they were “outraged” at the criticism, and Mr Coutts called the committee’s claims “completely and utterly unfounded”.

Public audit committee convener Paul Martin MSP said: “The Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee holds to account the people trusted with spending public money on public services. It is important we hold our meeting in Inverness as we know the local community has been concerned about the financial issues of NHS Highland and would want the opportunity to hear what NHS Highland has to say.

“We’ve already heard from others about what they think happened. This meeting gives us all the opportunity to hear from those responsible at NHS Highland about what caused the problems. It is a chance for all to look back and hear from NHS Highland on what lessons they have learnt from this report as well as what steps they have taken to improve their financial management in 2014/15.”

Members of the public can book a ticket from Monday by contacting the Scottish Parliament’s visitor services team in advance on 0800 092 7600 or 0131 348 5200 or by e-mailing sp.bookings@scottish.parliament.uk

A limited number of tickets will be available on the day on a first-come first-served basis.

There will not be video stream of the meeting online, however an official report of the meeting will be drawn up.