No takeover for isles health board 3/7/08
The Scottish Government insists there is nothing to fear from a plan which could allow Highland Health Board to have a say in island health services.
A partnership arrangement woudl result in the Highland health body twinning with its smaller Western Isles neighbour.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The proposed partnership arrangements have been warmly welcomed by all those involved. They will help strengthen the island boards' management and governance regimes and will enhance their independent status.
"One of the things we want to stress throughout is this should not be construed as any undermining of the independence of the island boards. They will remain independent entities. This is designed to strengthen their independence."
But critics fear that the current development is a first step to grab independence from the island boards.
Prolonged chaos and crisis at the Western Isles NHS is the catalyst for the change which aims to share expertise and prevent a recurrence in the smaller islands’ health bodies.
The Western Isles has experienced outside management control when former health minister Andy Kerr flew in a hit squad to take control after staff unrest. Edinburgh-based officials continued to maintain a senior role in the health board.
An island health source said: “Personally, Western Isles staff may not look very favourably on any loss of independence. We have already been down the road of being governed from the mainland.”
“This sounds like a proposal for shared services which was mooted by civil servants three years ago but we thought had gone by the wayside.
“There were discussions over partnering accounting and finance functions. They had talks with the accounts staff. They were told then that centralising functions were to be phased in. Nobody was to be made redundant as job losses would be covered by natural wastage and personnel would be transferred to other posts.”
Western Isles NHS Board said: "A preliminary discussion took place at a recent meeting with the Chairs involved regarding the concept of strengthening partnership working between island and mainland Boards.
"The Board Chairman responded on the basis that NHS Western Isles already has formal and informal partnership arrangements with a number of Boards. NHS Western Isles is currently also drawing on the support of a number of mainland Boards to bolster our capacity.
"A commitment was made at Chair level to explore further how best these partnerships might be established and developed in practical ways in order to ensure that Western Isles Health Board remains an independent and sustainable entity, working in partnership with others.
"The Cabinet Secretary reaffirmed on Tuesday (1st July), on her visit to Benbecula, that the Board would continue to exist in the Western Isles, and also acknowledged that the smaller island Boards needed to work in partnership with other Boards in order to develop and deliver safe and sustainable services to the populations they serve."
