ARGYLL’S health and social care board is taking a begging bowl to Holyrood as it faces a £2.4m budget gap this year.
The Health and Social Care Partnership’s (HSCP) most controversial cost-saving proposals, to cut council-run care homes, day care and learning disability centres, were rejected by the Integrated Joint Board (IJB) last month, following public outrage when the plans were leaked.
For people who work within and use these services, redesign means closure and more than 400 potential job losses. A fortnight ago the IJB’s vice chairman councillor Kieron Green warned Oban Community Council the deficit had not gone away and could come back in ‘a different form’.