WIREDGOV

NHS Scotland to get additional seasonal funding. 

An additional £10 million has been made available to health boards to assist with seasonal pressures over winter and to tackle the key issue of delayed discharge.

The Winter Resilience Fund comes on top of an £18.2 million investment by the Scottish Government to help ease the pressure on Scotland’s NHS over the winter months.

The Scottish Government will now work with health boards and their partners to establish where funding is most required.

The funding will aim to increase capacity during winter months and help stop people being admitted to or delayed in hospital unnecessarily.

Shona Robison, Cabinet Secretary for Health, said yesterday:

“We know the winter months may be challenging for our health boards, which is why we are investing an additional £10 million through the Winter Resilience Fund to help the NHS address seasonal pressures.

“This brings the total provided by the Scottish Government to tackle an increase in demand over winter to £28.2 million.

“Improving A&E waiting time and patient flow through hospital is key to ensuring the NHS is ready for winter.

"This is why we have made delayed discharge a top priority, as highlighted by the First Minister during Programme for Government, with Cabinet now monitoring figures on a weekly basis.

“Reducing delayed discharge not only helps individual patients, who benefit from getting home as quickly as possible, but also eases pressure across the system – including in A&E.

“Although delayed discharge has been reduced by two thirds under this Government, there is still much to do.

“Working closely with local authorities, the NHS must reduce the number of people waiting in hospital for appropriate care services to be arranged in the community. We are working with COSLA to make this happen.

“This also builds on the significant progress made to devise new and innovative ways to improve the flow of patients through health and care services. We will continue to support this work, together with our partners in the NHS and local government, to reshape the health and social care system as we work towards integration coming into force in April next year

“Today’s funding will go directly to where it is needed the most and we will be working closely with health boards to make sure they are well equipped to cope over the winter months.”

Notes To Editors

Yesterday’s £10 million investment is in addition to the Scottish Government’s three-year £50 million commitment to help boards make changes to their unscheduled care. The Unscheduled Care Action Plan fund is now being used to improve how our NHS runs and ensure people are seen quickly and treated effectively.

In October the Scottish Government announced that £8.2 million from the Unscheduled Care Action Plan fund was to be spent improving the way emergency care operates within hospitals.

The Scottish Government has also committed £10 million to tackle delayed discharge, with £5 million being announced in August, and an additional £5 million confirmed by the First Minister as part of the Programme for Government in November.