NHS Grampian Assurance Board minutes: 13 January 2026

Attendees and apologies

Members

• Stephen Gallagher, Chair, Scottish Government
• Irene Barkby,  Associate Chief Nursing Officer, Scottish Government
• Donna Bell, Director NCS, Scottish Government
• Professor Graham Ellis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Scottish Government
• Fiona Hogg, Chief People Officer , Scottish Government
• Tracy Slater, Head of Performance and Delivery, Scottish Government

NHS Grampian attendees

• Dennis Robertson, Board Vice Chair
• Laura Skaife-Knight, Chief Executive
• Paul Bachoo, Medical Director for Acute Services
• Hugh Farrow Bishop, Medical Director
• June Brown, Executive Nurse Director
• Geraldine Fraser, Chief Officer Acute Services
• Judith Proctor, Chief Officer, Moray Health and Social Care Partnership (joined for item 5)
• Philip Shipman, Interim Director of People and Culture (joined for item 6 – deferred)
• Alex Stephen, Director of Finance
• Rachel Taylor, Clinical Lead, Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership
• Phil Tydeman, Interim Director of Improvement

 

• Scottish Government officials 

Apologies

• Alison Evison, Board Chair
• Jack Gillespie, Deputy Director of Finance

• Robert Kirkwood, Head of People, Governance and Appointments Unit

 

Items and actions

Welcome and Apologies

The chair welcomed members and attendees to the twelfth meeting of the assurance board, noted apologies and outlined the agenda. On behalf of the Scottish Government he thanked those from NHS Grampian and partners for their efforts over the last week in dealing with and responding to the extreme adverse weather conditions.

Actions/Update from Meeting Eleven

The assurance board (AB) agreed the minutes and noted that the actions outstanding from the previous meeting were contained in today’s agenda.

Unscheduled Care​​​​​​​

Performance

Geraldine Fraser provided an update on the current performance.  She described how the severe weather had impacted services and updated on the “transportation cell” that was put in place and the multi agency approach taken, which included volunteer transportation.

Geraldine also described how discharges had been reduced due to the weather. Temporary discharge lounges are in place and there is a greater organisation-wide focus on transportation bookings and co-ordination.

Discussions took place on the impact on significant adverse event reviews/DATIX submissions (It was noted by the Executive Nurse Director at this time that there were no significant adverse events reported during the severe weather event within NHS Grampian), timing of discharges, any data from discharge timings, the impact from the “mini firebreak” before Christmas and current capacity. The AB requested in future reports to see more data on the progress of pre-noon discharge times as the pilot activity was rolled out across the ARI site at the end of 2025 and remained a focus and priority improvement project.

Unscheduled Care Programme update

Geraldine Fraser provided an update on the whole system unscheduled care improvement programme from her paper. Some positive impacts are starting to be seen on the workstreams, including an expansion of hospital at home and the use of volunteers to support medication distribution.

Donna Bell requested the need for an update on the whole system improvement plan, showing the additional workstreams added and to demonstrate assurance from an audit and comms perspective to aid feedback to ministers. Examples of actual changes and the outcomes for patients within the system were useful alongside data in giving assurance that changes are being implemented even if headline metrics do not yet show the overall impact.

A discussion took place on the benefits of volunteers and how that links with the improvement work as well as the need for recruitment flexibility.

Rachel Taylor provided an update on the work being done in Aberdeenshire area, including recruitment, multi-disciplinary team tool trial, and the aim that community hospitals are equitable and viewed as “stepdown.”

 

 

Deputy Medical Director USC recruitment

Hugh Farrow Bishop confirmed that Stephen Friar has been recruited and commenced as the new deputy medical director (USC).The board noted he has been involved in the earlier in the day discharge work. June Brown described the roll-out of the timely discharge pack to charge nurses and gave assurance that there was buy-in at this level to progress more timely discharges for patients that enabled better flow.

Redeployment of slippage funding

Geraldine Fraser provided an update on the redeployment of funds across the hospitals and Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) and that work is being done to review the impact of this and that an update will be provided at the subgroup next week.

Summary

The AB noted that there is a pilot underway on one ward looking at discharge timings and more information on this will be shared with the subgroup and AB as it develops and on the roll-out across the ARI, it also noted that occupancy in hospitals is still very high and that without the mini firebreak the situation with the weather would have been worse.

On the programme, it is key that the subgroup meets to ensure key learnings from the last month are captured, including any successes, and to maintain focus on medium/longer-term objectives.

The AB noted the recruitment of the deputy medical director (USC) and that the ARI Site Director had taken up post on 5 January, both of these roles funded by bringing forward the support package of funding earmarked for 2026-27, which Laura Skaife-Knight recognised was important. She thanked Scottish Government for bringing forward this ask into 2025-26 such is the importance of these leadership roles.

Planned Care

Central Decontamination Unit (CDU)

Paul Bachoo provided an update on the CDU issues. He reported that the initial equipment has arrived and that they are on schedule for the unit to reopen on 26 January 2026 with two machines, and a further three machines will arrive in February 2026, as planned.

He advised that the work to identify the root cause of the contaminant has almost concluded, with assistance from NSS.

Discussions took place on the impact of the weather and cancellations of surgery and the risks associated to bringing back CDU and the mitigations in place.

Laura Skaife-Knight confirmed that there will a lessons learned exercise on the CDU contamination, with an overview being presented at national Board Chief Executive’s meeting in February 2026 and the detailed debrief and learning shared via NHS Grampian’s internal governance processes.

Slippage funding update

Paul Bachoo updated on the use of slippage of core funding from his paper. The board noted the use and that this funding was available due to delays in recruitment.

Mutual Aid

Paul Bachoo also summarised the current status of mutual aid from his paper. He included information on the total cancellations of both outpatient and inpatient procedures due to the adverse weather. A discussion took place around rebooking and the impact on the trajectories for March 2026. He advised that he needed more data on the patient cohort and would then submit revised trajectories via a formal change form to the Scottish Government by the end of the week to inform the national position.

External Review Progress

Paul Bachoo confirmed that the planned care programme board has considered and is overseeing progress against the external review report.  This group created a draft action plan which was taken to the chief executive team for review. The next planned care programme board on 16 January 2026 is intended to formally agree the finalised action plan and then monitor its implementation until complete. A copy of this will be submitted for noting to the AB.

A discussion took place on the impending Scottish budget and how that will impact on planning for 2026-27. The Chair advised that any requests for programme funding should be discussed with Planned Care colleagues.

Summary

The chair summarised: the AB noted the progress on the planned reopening of the CDU, and risks associated with that; the slippage in funding will be used for maximum impact and one change control will be submitted; discussions on mutual aid and the response to the expert review is ongoing.

Value & Sustainability/Finance

Alex Stephen advised they were still waiting on confirmation of figures for quarter 3, however they were still on track to meet the £45 million maximum deficit position.

The month 8 formal report was included in the papers, Alex advised they were slightly ahead of schedule for the value and sustainability programme.

It was confirmed that the quarter 3 review meeting between NHS Grampian and Scottish Government Finance would take place on 17 February 2026.

Phil Tydeman updated on the value and sustainability programme and that NHS Grampian is relatively confident to deliver the savings planned for 2025-26 (£61.8m).

Phil Tydeman went on to describe the work being undertaken to identity the programme for 2026-27 and the quality impact assessments in place and the clinical governance in place for schemes.

Judith Proctor joined to provide an update on the Moray Health and Social Care Partnership financial pressures in-year. She advised there had been an increase in direct care for older people and children’s services needs, which is a contributory factor.

Judith advised on the areas they were seeking savings from and the impact as well as the challenges and the uncertainty of budget for 2026-27 and future years and next steps planned.

Laura Skaife-Knight confirmed the processes and routes in place for scrutiny of IJB finances and the escalation process. She advised that there was a deep dive on the financial position for 2025-26 and planning for 2026-27 at last week’s Finance Recovery Board which all three IJB Chief Officers attended, said there are formal quarterly performance meetings for all IJBs re: financial performance and there was a further meeting with system partners scheduled for 13 February 2026 to look at the system position and the first North East Transformation Group meeting was scheduled for February 2026 also.

A discussion took place around savings that can be made around prescribing and it was confirmed there was a well-established medicines management group in NHS Grampian but that the IJB was happy to learn from other areas.

Summary

The chair summarised: the AB noted the month 8 report and that data for month 9 was imminent but was not anticipated to deviate from agreed parameters. The AB noted the update from Moray and the progress on the value and sustainability programme for 2025-26, further noting the planned meetings of the whole system financial planning group and North East transformation board and asked that the outcome of these be brought back to a future meeting of the AB.

Action: add an update on system discussions to a meeting agenda after 13 February 2026 and invite relevant partners to join a future AB meeting.

 

Any Other Business

Laura Skaife-Knight advised that the posts for directors of people and culture and strategy, transformation and performance (and deputy CEO) are currently being advertised with interviews scheduled for mid-February 2026.

 

The chair thanked colleagues for their contributions to the twelfth assurance board meeting and closed the meeting.

 

It was agreed that the agenda for the next meeting (27 January 2026) will commence with leadership, governance and culture (1 hour allowed), followed by an unscheduled care update and the other areas will report by exception.