By David
Scott
19
October 2010
The number of senior NHS managers in Scotland will be cut by a quarter over the next four years according to a pledge given by Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon.
She told the Scottish National Party’s annual conference in Perth on October 16 that the proposed reduction in managers earning between £50,000 and £160,000 would save £25m in 2011/12. Along with other efficiency measures, it would bring annual savings of around £100m.
Sturgeon’s pledge means that more than 300 of the 1,240 highest-earning NHS posts in Scotland will go if the SNP is returned to power next May. The aim is to achieve this mainly through ‘natural wastage’.
The health secretary said: ‘Over the lifetime of the next Parliament, health boards will be expected to cut the number of senior managers by 25%.
‘Not because we don’t value the work that managers do, but because when budgets are tight we must spend every penny that we possibly can directly on patient care.
‘That saving, together with other non-clinical efficiency savings, will release more than £100m a year – money that will help to protect services, ensure the highest quality of patient care and protect the fundamental values of our NHS.’
Sturgeon, deputy leader of the party, also announced two key policies that go against the advice of an independent budget review group set up by the Scottish Government to identify savings options.
She made it clear there would be no U-turn on the SNP’s pledge to abolish prescription charges and that the council tax freeze, first introduced in 2008, would be continued for a further two years. The £70m cost of maintaining the freeze in 2011/12 would be included in the Scottish budget.
Opposition
parties have questioned how the SNP administration can abolish prescription
charges and continue the council tax freeze without explaining how it will
balance the books.
In his closing speech to the conference on October 17, First Minister Alex Salmond said the country was facing ‘the most ferocious series of cuts in our lifetime’.
He hinted that the SNP planned to reduce the number of police forces in Scotland from the current eight. He said he would put ‘bobbies before boundaries’.
