Overspending on health provision is a cause for concern
There is a disappointing sense of deja vu in the story we report this week about the overspending of its budget by Argyll and Bute’s Health and Social Care Partnership. The HSCP is staring into a financial black hole of some £4 million for this financial year, admittedly a reduction from the previous estimate of £4.6 million, but it remains a very significant sum of money.
The HSCP has attributed this overspend to a number of causes, ‘including the increased demand for health and social care services, the use of agency staffing to cover vacancies and ongoing challenges in progressing initiatives to reduce costs and release savings’.