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.

Moray Integrated Joint Board ‘like a family maxed out on their credit card’ as latest £1m overspend is revealed

Courageous conversations need to be held if Moray Integrated Joint Board is to balance its books.

The organisation responsible for health and social care in the area has spent an extra £1.07 million on services between the beginning of April to the end of June.

While the board holds almost £1.6m in general reserves that can be used to cover the overspend, it will not be enough if current spending continues for the rest of the financial year.

The largest spend was £824,942 in older people and physical sensory disability services, £238,182 on primary care prescribing  and £201,811 on mental health.

There were also underspends of £207,784 on in-house care services and £93, 266 on community nursing.

‘We need to have some courageous conversations’

At a meeting on Thursday, board member Sandy Riddell said: “Every time we have a report there are huge overspends. It’s actually like a family that’s maxed out on their credit card.

“Covid aside, we need to have some courageous conversations about strategy and that the financial situation requires some action.

“I feel collectively we have to have some discussions about shifting things and doing things differently.”

Chief financial officer Tracey Abdy told the board the extra spend on older people’s services was a problem across Scotland not just in Moray, and there had been issues recruiting some mental health staff roles that had to be covered by locums.

She said: “We still have funding that has to be allocated but it wouldn’t be enough to cover the whole spend if it continues at the same level.”

Vice-chairman of the board Dennis Robertson asked for time to be set aside so members could discuss the matter in relation to strategic priorities.

He said: “There are some very difficult decisions to be taken but we can’t divert them.

“Treading water can be very difficult and we need to stroke out at some point.”

It was agreed to undertake discussions to tackle the problem.