NHS Lothian approves £25m spending cuts

• Frontline health services in Scotland
  ​face major cuts in a bid to save £25 million - while Britain pays the EU £121m every week.
  ​
• Vote to leave the EU on 23 June.

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Health services across the Lothians face cuts worth up to £25 million as NHS bosses battle to balance the books, the Edinburgh Evening News has reported.

Savings will be found by cutting beds, slashing GP prescriptions, reducing the use of agency staff and reviewing services such as on sexual health, according to NHS Lothian plans for 2016-17.
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NHS chiefs are struggling to tackle a £77 million funding gap caused by rising demand and an ageing population.

The latest proposals include a bid to reduce reliance on the private sector, which NHS Lothian uses if its own hospitals don't have the capacity to meet Scottish Government operation time guarantees.

The move is likely to delay elective surgeries such as knee operations and hip replacements, leaving patients in pain for longer.

Managing NHS funding in Scotland is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which receives a block grant from the UK government linked to NHS spending in England via the Barnett formula. If NHS spending in England rises due to the UK gaining a net £121 million a week from leaving the EU, then Scotland's NHS grant will rise accordingly. 

The £25 million needed to avoid these dramatic cuts to NHS services is little more than a day's worth of the amount currently paid to the European Union; a shocking mismatch in our public spending priorities, given the huge, direct and very personal difference that an effective NHS makes to the lives of many thousands of people who need medical help.

Voting to Leave the EU on 23 June will release an extra £121 million every week to easily provide the necessary funding to prevent these cuts, and much more.