Scottish Government - Health

20th September 2011

Health - Spending Review

Resource funding for health in Scotland is set to increase by £826 million over the next three years.

This will mean a record budget of more than £11.6 billion in 2012-13 and delivers on the Scottish Government's commitment to pass on the Barnett resource health consequentials in full to the NHS in Scotland.

NHS territorial health boards will receive real terms increases - £720 million more in 2014/15 than at present, reflecting the government's pledge to protect patient care and frontline services.

The key priorities for health include:

delivery of the 18 week referral to treatment waiting time standard
implementation of our Healthcare Quality Strategy
continued reductions in Healthcare Associated Infections
investing £30 million in new approaches to detecting cancer early
the continued provision of a Change Fund, which will increase to £80 million for NHS Boards and local authorities to redesign services and shift the balance towards primary and community care
implementing the provisions of the Alcohol Minimum Pricing Bill
the roll out of the Family Nurse Partnership across Scotland
continuing to address the major public health challenges facing Scotland, including alcohol misuse, smoking, obesity, sexual health and Hepatitis C
continuing to protect and enable the most vulnerable in our society by addressing health inequalities and, through early interventions, to support our children
In addition, despite an overall reduction in capital budgets from Westminster, over £2 billion will be invested in new and improved infrastructure over the next three years.

£1.1 billion from traditional capital will support the delivery of key projects such as the new Southern General, the Edinburgh Royal Victoria Hospital Replacement and the Aberdeen Emergency Care Centre.

£750 million through NPD projects and the hub initiative and £300 million transferred from resource to capital will help finance a number of major projects including the Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, North Ayrshire Community Hospital, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and the Balfour Hospital in Orkney.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon said:

"These spending plans clearly set out the strength of our commitment to the health service in Scotland. The retention of all health resource Barnett consequentials for the Scottish NHS means we can continue to improve our health as a nation, tackle inequalities and deliver a first class service to patients across the country.

"This is a good deal in tough economic times with the core budgets of our territorial health boards increasing in real terms - by 9.5 per cent by 2014/15. This will enable boards to deliver on our key commitments including shorter waiting times, reducing hospital infections and improving the detection of cancer.

"These budget allocations will support services and initiatives designed to help people in Scotland to live longer and healthier lives with reduced health inequalities and to provide more sustainable, high quality and continually improving healthcare services close to home.

"In the face of a 36 per cent real terms reduction in capital resources we have maximised capital spend ensuring we can deliver on legally committed projects as well as building new and improved facilities across the country through the NPD pipeline and Hub Initiative."

Also included in the three year spending projections for health is:

£414 million for Sport and the 2014 Commonwealth Games
£60.9 million for Equalities
£32.7 million for the Food Standards Agency Scotland