Health board service warning over bid to save £45m

NHS Borders estimates it needs to save £45m in the next financial year

An emergency meeting is to be held by NHS Borders to look at ways to find savings of £45m over the next three years.

Closures, a recruitment freeze and reductions in service will all be considered.

The meeting will take place on 19 February with a final spending plan to be submitted to the Scottish government before the end of March.

NHS Borders chief executive Ralph Roberts said it was important to be up front with the public about the challenges being faced.

Ralph Roberts said there was no way service provision could remain unchanged

He said there was bound to be an impact on services.

"Upwards of 10% of our budget is really what we are talking about needing to take out," he said.

"You cannot do that without there being an impact on the level of service that we are providing.

"So it is obviously going to have an impact and that is going to feel different."

Mr Roberts said the health board faced a difficult task of balancing financial challenges with performance challenges while still providing a level of care that was safe.

He added that it would inevitably mean the "type and scale and nature" of its workforce would change.

However, he would not be drawn on where savings would be found.

"It would be wrong to speculate at this stage but I think we need to be clear that services are going to have to change," he said.

"What we will be doing over the next six to eight weeks, we'll be working with staff, senior clinicians and managers around what that might look like."

He said that would then need to be discussed with the health board and the wider community but it was inevitable that changes would have to be made.

"Is the service next year going to look exactly the same as it does now? No, it can't," he said.