Patients from Aberdeen to Wick and across the islands could be covered by one giant NHS board in a major shake-up proposed by Labour.
The plan would cut Scotland’s NHS regions down to just three, potentially folding Orkney, Shetland, Highland, Grampian, Western Isles – and possibly Tayside – into one new region.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the plan would cut waste in the health service, if he leads the next government at Holyrood in 2026.
“I will take on the top-heavy management that is holding the NHS back and deliver the biggest and most meaningful NHS reform in decades,” he said in a speech to Labour conference in Glasgow on Friday.
“We will end the growing culture of bureaucracy.
“We will cut the number of health boards down to three, pushing power away from the boardrooms and to patients and staff on the frontline.
“Put bluntly – fewer managers, more nurses. Fewer chief executives and more doctors.”
NHS boards cut to three
Regional health boards already work together in three groups – North, East and West – on planning and “cancer networks”.
Mr Sarwar did not confirm which boards would be in each proposed group.
But the current North regional partnership takes in Western Isles, Shetland, Orkney, Grampian, Highland and Tayside.
There was no indication where the superboard would be run from. The current NHS Scotland North regional team gives a Dundee address for administration.
Along the existing regional pattern, it might have to cover a vast patchwork of rural Scotland, islands, and cities including Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee and Perth.
In his speech, Mr Sarwar also pledged to “do whatever it takes to fix our NHS”.
He promised patients would see a GP within 48 hours and outlined action to cut waiting times for treatment, opening up the prospect of NHS patients having their operations in other parts of the country or in the private sector.
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