HEALTH chiefs in Argyll and Bute are already facing an overspend of nearly £4million – and that figure is set to rise further.

A report from the area’s health and social care partnership (HSCP) also reveals a year to date overspend of nearly £2m, only three months into the 2020/21 financial year.

The Covid-19 outbreak is one of the reasons for the financial position, along with projected savings which have not been achieved.

The document by head of finance and transformation Judy Orr also warns that the long-running dispute with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for services provided to patients from Helensburgh and Lomond at hospitals in the Vale of Leven, Paisley and Glasgow remains unresolved.

The figure due to the Greater Glasgow and Clyde board under a service level agreement for 2020-21 was still not known after the partnership’s integration joint board met via video link on Wednesday.

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Ms Orr said: “There is a year to date overspend of £1.981m as at 30 June 2020. This consists of an overspend of £605,000 within social work delivered services and a year to date overspend of £1.376m within health.

“The overspends are on Covid-19 related expenditure where funding from the Scottish Government has not yet been received nor accrued, and savings targets not yet being delivered – again progress has been impacted by Covid-19 pandemic.

“The forecast outturn is significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. All work on delivery of savings was halted for two months at end of March as resource was put onto mobilising for the pandemic.

“Covid-19 cases have now fallen in number, and we are planning for re-starting services that were stopped in the context of continuing to need to comply with social distancing.

“Additional costs are being incurred for staffing, to cover for people off with symptoms or in households with symptoms, or shielding or with child care issues, and for PPE, additional cleaning, additional provider costs, and running Covid Assessment Centres (CACs) across our area.”

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Ms Orr added: “It should be noted that the dispute with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde continues and we do not know what the payment being sought for 2020/21 is compared to what we have budgeted.

“This is expected to be available by end of July.

“We have very recently become aware that they are proposing a different charging model based on bed days and that this is likely to increase charges from next year onwards.

“This risk is not reflected in the forecast outturn position or year to date expenditure reported.”

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