I have called on Fife Council, NHS Fife and the Scottish Government to come together and find a solution to the shortfall in the budget of the Health and Social care Partnership in Fife.
Back in December last year, the Cabinet Secretary for Health Jean Freeman acknowledged that that the joint board in Fife responsible for delivering health and social care had been set up with a deficit in funding from the outset and said she would examine options for addressing this.
Since then I have written to the CEO’s of NHS Fife and Fife Council asking why the shortfall happened in the first place, and, what action is planned to bring the Fife board into line with other boards across Scotland.
Back in December I was pleased that there was an acknowledgment that the core budget for health and social care in Fife had been set up with a built in deficit but I am frustrated that nothing seems to have been done to address this problem.
Many individuals and families will have experienced the difficulty in getting a care package and getting support in the community. In my view this is getting worse not better and is why this deficit must be addressed as a matter of urgency. Even then it will continue to be difficult but at least Fife will be on the same funding footing as the rest of Scotland and not continuing to carry a deficit.
NHS Fife and Fife Council must address this issue and I do hope councillors will be pressing the officials in the council to do so. NHS Fife must also be held to account and answer how they intend to address the issue.
