ONE of the country’s most badly run health boards has asked the Scottish Government for another £12m to fix the outdated electrics at a major hospital.
NHS Tayside, which has already benefited from around £60m in emergency loans, requested the sum amid concerns about electrical failures at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Ninewells in Dundee.
Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “Just weeks after Health Secretary Jeane Freeman stated that NHS Tayside is on the road to recovery we see the health board back at her door with the need for over £12 million for electrical work.
“Patients, staff and the wider communities covered by NHS Tayside want to see SNP Ministers actually secure the long term financial sustainability of NHS Tayside.”
NHS Tayside, which serves a population of around 400,000 people, has been in crisis over repeated failures of financial management.
A watchdog report covering 2016/17 revealed that the board was having to make over £200m on savings and had received tens of millions of pounds in “brokerage” loans from the SNP Government.
New Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced last year that boards which had received loans would not have to pay them back. It is understood the write-off has saved NHS Tayside around £62m.
It also emerged last year that NHS Tayside had previously dipped into its charity fund to pay for a new IT system, a revelation that triggered the departure of senior figures at the organisation.
Although recent headlines have been relatively positive, a January board paper shows that NHS Tayside has gone back to the Government for more taxpayer subsidy.
The document stated: “A short term outage of the Ninewells Hospital main incoming electrical supply highlighted large areas of the hospital that were not provided with adequate emergency generator back up. This included many critical clinical areas.”
It added: “In many areas the existing electrical systems are operating well beyond their economic life, original design capacity and are not provided with dual unified electrical supplies. These multiple single points of failure could result in loss of power.”
The immediate priority is sorting out the electrical infrastructure in so-called “zone 1”, which covers NICU and the Children’s Theatre Suite at Ninewells.
According to the paper, the board has requested additional capital funding of £12.1m between 2018 and 2021. Around £9m covers building and engineering works, while VAT accounts for £1.8m. The £12m is £3m more than the outline business case that was considered by the Government last year.
The paper also laid out eight risks, including two “sudden failures” within the NICU due to “electrical switchgear” shortcomings.
It noted that current systems are “non-compliant with current technical standards" and flagged up risks in terms of the “ability of the existing installation” to supply electrical demand throughout Ninewells.
Also of concern is that emergency power generators, switchgear and distribution cabling are over 40 years old, and “components are obsolete”.
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “The Full Business Case for the Ninewells Electrical Infrastructure Zone 1 Polyclinic project was approved by the Board of NHS Tayside in January and has been submitted to the Scottish Government Capital Investment Group.
“This is in accordance with normal practice as investment in NHS infrastructure of this nature is required to be approved through a Business Case process.
“Boards are allocated annual sums to address routine backlog and equipment replacement - major infrastructure investment of this type is available subject to being approved through submission of detailed Business Cases.”
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