Extra £3m to support NHS winter plans

An additional £3 million is being allocated to local NHS boards to help support their preparations for winter, Health Secretary Shona Robison said today.

The funding will support the on-going efforts of health boards and Integrated Joint Boards to improve patient flow through A&E, hospitals wards and support people back to their homes as soon as possible.

The £3 million of winter funding is designed to increase each local area’s winter resilience. This is in addition to previously announced sums of money, including £9 million to support accident & emergency departments over winter and £30 million specifically to reduce delayed discharge this year.

It will support the plans that health boards are required to develop and implement over winter to ensure the required capacity is in place to manage the expected increase in demand.

Speaking at a Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland event today, Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“We know that over winter demand on our health service increases. That is why we are working closely with our NHS and social care services to ensure they have the right plans in place.

“Scotland is well-prepared to head in to winter. We have the best A&E performance anywhere in the UK, thanks to our joint collaboration with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and Academy of Royal Colleges. And, since the launch of our joint ‘Six Essential Actions’, we have outperformed all other UK nations for the last 19 months.

“However there is no room for complacency and we know that winter presents significant challenges for our health service. This additional £3 million of funding will give an extra boost to health boards’ and their partners’ winter planning.

“Yesterday I also announced a £10 million package of support for our outpatient services across the country – helping to reduce waiting lists and build additional capacity into the system ahead of winter.

“We’ll also continue to provide national support to our hospitals in implementing best practice across the country, so that all patients get the same excellent NHS care no matter where they live or the time of year.”

Background

Scotland continues to see the best performance across the UK and has been ahead of England for 19 consecutive months of core performance (to Sept 2016).   England’s four hour performance in September was 86.0%, compared to 94.2% for Scotland.

More detail on the £9 million funding announcement is available here: http://news.gov.scot/news/9-million-commitment-to-emergency-care

The Scottish Government issued winter guidance to health boards early this year (in August) and has held two winter planning events so far for NHS and IJB partners.