THE leader of Argyll and Bute Council has called for healthcare savings to speed up - by the end of next month.

Aileen Morton was speaking at a meeting of the Health and Social Care Partnership's (HSCP) integration joint board (IJB) last Wednesday.

The Advertiser revealed how a report for the meeting stated only £540,000 of a £10.6m savings plan had been raised so far - a quarter of the way through the financial year.

Councillor Morton spoke after the report was delivered verbally by the HSCP's interim chief financial officer, Lesley MacLeod, who also said that the HSCP's overspend had been reduced from £4.4m to £4m.

She said: "I welcome your comments and the update gives a sense of momentum - but momentum is not the sense I get from reading this report.

"With 25 per cent of the year gone, only five per cent of the target savings have been delivered.

"Is there any confidence that at our next meeting [on Wednesday, September 27] there will be a substantial shift in that delivery?

"We do need to see this as we have identified savings to get our long term planning under control. It all does contribute but we do need to see planned savings coming.

Christina West, the HSCP's outgoing chief officer, was upbeat about the financial challenges ahead.

She said: "I believe we will see an improvement at the next meeting.

"In Argyll and Bute we have a history of delivering recurring savings. This time we are not seeing delivery of savings but there is a trajectory where we see month by month savings.

"We need to show what that trajectory looks like and show what level of savings we will contribute over time.

"We need to ensure we work closely with partners."