Highlights MONTHLY March 2014 MEET THE BOARD: GRAHAM CRERAR A fund of experience AVIEMORE AND BROADFORD Dr Boyd Peters at Ian Charles PREFERRED FOR Hospital in Grantown-on-Spey NEW HOSPITALS St Vincents Hospital, Kingussie BROADFORD and Aviemore community hospital and resource have emerged as the pre- centre in Aviemore, starting a ferred locations for new hos- wider redesign of health and so- pitals in Highland. cial care services and closing Ian On 11th March, the steering Charles Hospital in Grantown-on- group looking into the redesign of Spey and St Vincent Hospital in health and adult social care ser- Kingussie. vices in Skye, Lochalsh and Work will now take place to South West Ross chose Broad- identify possible sites in ford as its preferred location for a Aviemore for the new hospital and resource centre, and this will new hospital in the area. Mackinnon Memorial Hospital, form part of the formal consulta- A week earlier, a special meet- Broadford ing of the NHS Highland board tion. decided to go to formal three- In Skye, Lochalsh and South month consultation in Badenoch West Ross, an extensive engage- & Strathspey, where there has ment exercise resulted in a pre- already been extensive commu- ferred option being chosen for the nity engagement on service re- future shape of service provision. design. The result of this is the This was to modernise local ser- emergence of a preferred option vices, including those provided by for change – developing a new Continued on page 2 Portree Hospital - - Preferred locations for new hospitals Continued from front page of the NHS Highland board to at pains to point out at its special pave the way for a formal, three- meeting this month that much the area’s two hospitals, Portree month consultation on the full had still to be done before any and Mackinnon Memorial in service model and possible site construction work starts. Broadford. locations. When that is complete “We are in the middle of a very The steering group had rec- a final recommendation will be long process in which the input of ommended the creation of a main made to the board and then to people in both communities is community resource centre and Scottish Government ministers. crucial,” said Maimie Thompson, hospital (a ‘hub’) in one of the The proposed new hub would head of PR and engagement. “I towns and a smaller ‘spoke’ facil- be the main site and would ac- understand that the public will ity in the other. This was pre- commodate a wide range of ser- focus on our hospitals in both ar- sented to a special meeting of the vices, such as the Scottish Am- eas, but I must stress that they NHS Highland board on 4th bulance Service, social care and are not a done deal.” March, and work to identify a pre- community health, and would NHS Highland chair Garry ferred location was agreed. also have in-patient facilities, the Coutts described both service A ‘location option appraisal main diagnostic facilities such as redesigns as “a tremendous op- workshop’ was subsequently held X-ray and endoscopy, a proce- portunity”. by the service redesign steering dure room for minor operations, “Being able to get to this stage group selected Broadford for the endoscopy, out-patient chemo- for both these communities is new-build hub facility and Portree therapy and infusion service, and fantastic,” he said. as the location for the spoke. the main visiting out-patient ser- Among those present at the However, no decisions were vices such as orthopaedic, surgi- special meeting was Dave taken on the actual sites. Further cal, chest and ENT. Thompson, MSP for Skye, work will now take place to as- The spoke would accommo- Lochaber and Badenoch, who sess the feasibility of a number of date out-patient services, primary told the board: “I am very com- sites and to ensure that all poten- care emergency centre, a minor fortable with the way things are tial sites have been identified. But injury unit and a base for NHS being approached and you get as NHS Highland owns land adja- Highland’s community team for my full support. cent to the new health centre in the north of the area. However, it “The issues in Badenoch & Broadford this will be investigated would not have in-patient beds. Strathspey and Skye, Lochalsh & in the first instance. With public attention under- South West Ross were never go- The preferred locations having standably focused on the pros- ing to be easy to deal with but it been chosen, a recommendation pect of closing hospitals and has been a positive process in will be made to the April meeting building new ones, the board was how people have been involved.” Woodland enterprise volunteers gain qualifications after training BLARBUIE Woodland Enterprise volunteers have gained qualifications which will assist them in maintaining the Lochgilphead woodland. Trainees Sam Thomas, Alan Campbell, Peter Creech and Colin Campbell were put through training before receiving their LANTRA cer- tification for chain-saw crosscutting, felling techniques and saw mainte- nance. T his training will quickly be put to good use as previous years’ storm damage to the woodland has led to a backlog of clearing work. Blarbuie Woodland Enterprise looks to enhance the mental and physical health of people in the Mid Argyll area and also wants to im- prove access to open up the woodland for all to enjoy. - 2 - FINANCE: Need to secure extra £2.5m ‘clearly disappointing’ Brokerage deal enables board to balance books NHS HIGHLAND has had to bor- Mr Kenton reported to the The most significant over- row from the Scottish Govern- February meeting of the board on spend, £9.5 million, related to ment to help it balance the books. the need for a £2 million improve- Raigmore Hospital, where the Director of finance Nick ment in NHS Highland’s opera- financial position deteriorated by Kenton will tell the board on 1st tional units to deliver financial £0.3 million since the February April that NHS Highland has se- break-even. This was in addition board meeting. cured brokerage of £2.5 million to a potential benefit of £2 million Most of this related to in- from the Scottish Government from reprofiling the lives of NHS creases in theatre costs, ortho- Health and Social Care Director- Highland’s assets, securing addi- paedic lists and cancer drugs. ates to ensure that it meets its tional funding of £1 million from “While interim management financial targets in 2013/14. The The Highland Council and secur- arrangements have now been put money will have to be repaid in ing other benefits totalling £0.6 in place at Raigmore, it is too late future years, based on an agreed million. in the financial year to expect any schedule starting in 2015/16. However, the director will tell further improvement,” Mr Kenton In his report to the board, Mr the April meeting that, while the will report. Kenton will explain: “The need to £1 million had been secured from In addition, the director will obtain brokerage is clearly disap- the local authority, the asset lives report a £3.9 million overspend in pointing and emphasises the reprofiling had yielded £0.4 mil- HNS Highland’s South and Mid need for robust savings plans lion less than originally predicted. Operational Unit, an improvement and controls which deliver recur- Furthermore, the improving of £0.3 million on the figure re- rent savings and reduce the financial trend in the operation ported in February; and a £1.7 board’s reliance on non-recurrent units did not continue through the million overspend in the North resource, which has grown in re- first two months of the final quar- and West Operational Unit, cent years.” ter of the financial year. where, Mr Kenton will report, there are continuing financial pressures caused mainly by the QUOTE use of medical locums in the rural general hospitals and GP out-of- The need to obtain brokerage is clearly hours costs. However, there has disappointing and emphasises the need been a £1.3 million underspend in Argyll & Bute, where there are for robust savings plans and controls also pressures relating to locum costs. - 3 - HOW ACTIVE? ... THE STAFF SURVEY IS COMPLETE THANKS to everyone who took cess to the amazing environ- the time to answer the questions Health promotion ment around us. Congratula- in the recent staff survey on specialist Dan tions, too, to Yvonne MacRae in physical activity and active Bettyhill, who is the lucky recipi- travel. Jenkins reports on ent of an additional donated Responses came in from the results of a prize of £20 outdoor activity every corner of the board, and ‘voucher’. And thanks go to the with over 1,200 sets of answers recent staff survey benefactor who recognised the it starts to give us a good idea of value of encouraging the views what our staff are thinking and MacGillivary from Dingwall of staff on these questions. doing. Health Centre, Mairi Henderson So, what did you tell us? At the time of writing the sur- from Kingussie Medical Practice, Here are a few headlines from vey has recently closed, and the and Laura Mcilhatton from Cen- the survey … prize draw just taken place. Full tre for Health Sciences, who are Thirty-two percent of you are analysis of the responses is un- the lucky winners of £50 outdoor active for 30 minutes or more on der way, and we will use what activity ‘vouchers’. at least five days a week. While you say to further support oppor- Huge thanks to the Green that seems low at first glance, tunities for staff to be active in a Exercise Partnership for donat- out of the 60%, or so, of you way that they enjoy and is realis- ing the funding for these, and for who are active for one to four tic to fit with busy lives.