DELAYS in non-urgent operations and treatment may follow a budget
purge at Western Infirmary and Gartnavel General hospital in Glasgow.
The cutbacks follow an overspend of about #1m on supplies and drugs in
the hospitals, which have applied to become a self-governing trust next
year.
Mr Laurence Peterken, Greater Glasgow Health Board's general manager,
has set up office in Gartnavel to oversee the cutbacks.
Although the staff budget is not overspent, part of the shortfall will
be met by a freeze on recruitment of ''non-essential'' staff, said a
spokesman. Staff within the hospital said overtime and the use of agency
nurses is also being cut back.
Spending on drugs at the Western has risen in recent years following
the introduction of expensive drugs which have transformed the quality
of life of patients undergoing cancer therapy and renal dialysis.
The review is also a dress rehearsal for the kind of financial rigour
the Western may face next year if it becomes a trust.
A health board spokesman said management had decided ''to scrutinise
rigorously expenditure patterns on supplies and recruitment over the
next six months''.
He added there was no question of redundancies or reduction in patient
care. The management expected these measures to put them back on course
in six months.
Mrs Irenee O'Neill, Royal College of Nursing organiser, said: ''Yet
again, we have an iniquitous system of accounting which does not reflect
need; it reflects the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
''As far as the RCN is concerned, the one thing that must not be
affected is the level of patient care and the skill mix providing it.
The treatment of cancer cannot be cost-driven.''
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