Coronavirus: Lothians' £50m health and social care bill

Dealing with coronavirus in the Lothians will cost up to £50m, new figures show.

The increased health and social care costs come as NHS Lothian estimates that 45,000 people in its area have been infected with Covid-19.

Extra protective equipment and staff are among the costs facing the health board and local social care alliances.

Meanwhile, it has also been revealed that remedial work on the delayed Sick Kids hospital will cost £6m.

In the latest NHS Lothian board papers, Susan Goldsmith, director of finance, said dealing with coronavirus would have a major impact on the health authority's finances for 2020/21, adding that, "maintenance of sound financial governance and cost control is imperative when planning for and responding to the Covid-19 pandemic."

A breakdown of the estimated £48.8m extra costs show that the majority is for the social care sector in the form of extra protective equipment, providing agency cover and more beds in community hospitals.

The breakdown is only for spending plans over £1m so the full cost to NHS Lothian and social care alliances is likely to be higher.

'Target cost of £6m'

Meanwhile, the estimated cost of remedial work at the delayed Sick Kids hospital has been revealed as £6m.

The new children's hospital in Edinburgh was due to open in July last year, but last-minute inspections found safety concerns over its ventilation systems and it was delayed to autumn this year.

But this opening date is under review with the paper revealing "discussions are under way to establish a revised programme to allow a full handover as close to the autumn timeline as possible".

The changes needed to the hospital's ventilation and fire safety systems have a "target cost" of £6m, which the Scottish government will pay, with work having continued through the lockdown.

NHS Lothian said the money was part of £16m worth of additional funds from the Scottish government towards the project.