As a responsible steward of public resources, NHS Tayside recognises its responsibility to consistently strive to deliver increased value through improvements in the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of its functions.
NHS Tayside is committed to supporting business by paying bills quickly, and aims to pay all undisputed invoices within 10 working days. In 2018/19 the average number of days the Board took to pay an invoice was 11 working days, an improvement from the 2017/18 performance of 13 working days.
The Scottish Government Health and Social Care: Medium Term Financial Framework published in October 2018 serves as a framework to focus the financial planning process. The framework set out a new three year financial planning and performance framework, allowing territorial Boards 1% flexibility on their annual resource budget, a marginal over or under spend in one year, assuming a net break even position over three years.
The NHS Tayside three year financial plan for 2019/20 – 2021/22 sets out the actions that will be taken to strive towards financial balance, which will be underpinned by:-
• Transforming Tayside and the ambitions to improve the quality, safety and sustainability of clinical services across the region, including those services delivered by the Health and Social Care Partnerships;
• improved productivity and efficiency across all services, and
• the support of all staff in continuing to deliver annual cost savings in line with levels delivered in the previous three year period.
The engagement with and involvement of all staff in managing budgets and operating within available resources is key, and significant progress is being made in providing the necessary leadership and support to ensure that all steps to reduce the cost base are considered, alongside delivery of high quality and safe patient care.
Transforming Tayside describes our high level direction, in response to the National Clinical Strategy, the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan and the challenges posed to modern healthcare by Realistic Medicine. The design of new clinically-led, sustainable models of care, developed in partnership with our communities, will transform our future approach to health and social care.
The Board is adopting a five tier approach to achieving a position of financial break even by the end of the three year period:-
• Level 1 Transforming Tayside
• Level 2 Regional and National opportunities
• Level 3 Productivity and improvement gains
• Level 4 Cost reduction plans (each service)
• Level 5 Financial flexibility
While progress is anticipated with transformation of services in 2019/20, the 2019/20 efficiency savings plan will continue to be reliant on actions within levels 3 to 5. The immediate goal will be to improve productivity within our clinical services.
