THE Scottish Government is anticipating a two-year pause on the build of new NHS capital projects in the country, NHS Lothian’s finance director has said.
Following the December budget announcement, Craig Marriott said that the Scottish Government advised NHS boards to ‘immediately’ stop any project development spend.
He continued, “New construction projects are dependent on approval and funding from the Scottish Government.
“Following the budget announcement in December, the Scottish Government advised NHS boards to immediately stop any project development spend as the Scottish Government does not anticipate starting construction of any new capital projects over the next two years at least.
“Staff and partners are being made aware of the current picture and will be kept updated.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said, “As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging. The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in the Scottish Government’s capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28. Our emphasis for the immediate future will therefore be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement.
“Our infrastructure investment plan (2021-22 to 2025-26) identified the priority health capital projects for funding within that period. As a result of the cut in our capital budget, a revised infrastructure investment plan will be published in Spring 2024 and all due consideration will be given to what projects can be included within that revised plan.”
