{"id":255662,"date":"2025-11-10T22:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/255662\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:15:13","slug":"nhs-lothian-facing-140m-funding-gap-amid-concerning-maternity-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/255662\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS Lothian facing \u00a3140m funding gap amid ‘concerning’ maternity report"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Scotland\u2019s largest health boards is facing a funding gap of over \u00a3140m by the end of the decade, it has said.<\/p>\n

NHS Lothian has warned that the coming years will bring financial pressures, but it will continue to find more efficient ways of delivering services.<\/p>\n

The health board met its budget for this year by managing to find \u00a360m of savings, but expects to have to cut a similar figure in the coming year.<\/p>\n

In its annual review, the health board stated that a growing population \u2013 the region is expected to account for 40% of Scotland\u2019s total population growth in the years to come \u2013 and the ageing demographics, which will lead to increased demand on health and social care, will bring financial pressures.<\/p>\n

The health board\u2019s maternity services are also facing an escalation in its support and scrutiny by the Scottish Government after inspectors raised \u201cserious concerns\u201d during an unannounced visit.<\/p>\n

Staffing shortages and a \u201cculture of mistrust\u201d led to delays and patient harm at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, a review by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) found.<\/p>\n

Inspectors found 26 areas where required standards had not been met.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a>\"Play<\/p>\n

Scottish health secretary Neil Gray told MSPs last month that he was \u201cdeeply disappointed and concerned by the findings in the report\u201d.<\/p>\n

The health secretary said NHS Lothian had already made \u201csome improvements\u201d to its maternity triage services and invested \u00a31.5m in staffing, which has been used to recruit 70 new midwives since June, with 30 already in place.<\/p>\n

He told MSPs last month he \u201cnearly lost\u201d his wife during pregnancy after \u201cinaccurate assessments\u201d were carried out.<\/p>\n

What did inspectors find?<\/p>\n

Inspectors raised \u201cserious concerns\u201d after carrying out an unannounced inspection of one of the country\u2019s largest maternity units.<\/p>\n

Staff spoke to inspectors about their \u201coverwhelming feeling of helplessness, frustration and worry for not only patient, but staff safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

The inspection said some women waiting for labour to be induced had experienced delays of more than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a>\"Play<\/p>\n

Inspectors also spoke to women who \u201cdescribed being left alone in a triage room for long periods of time following their initial assessment\u201d.<\/p>\n

A review of incident reports showed \u201cevidence of medication errors occurring involving student midwives\u201d, the report revealed.<\/p>\n

Donna Maclean, chief inspector at HIS, said: \u201cDuring the course of this inspection, we escalated serious concerns within NHS Lothian to senior staff and the Scottish Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese concerns related to culture, oversight of patient safety and staff wellbeing within Edinburgh Royal Infirmary maternity services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Caroline Hiscox, the chief executive of NHS Lothian, accepted the report was \u201cconcerning\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI apologise to women, people who use the service, and their families and can reassure them that these issues are being taken extremely seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said an improvement plan was \u201congoing\u201d after whistleblowers raised concerns in 2024, with Prof Hiscox saying, however, that \u201cwider-ranging matters, such as staffing, recruitment and working culture within the department, will take time to resolve\u201d.<\/p>\n

But she stressed: \u201cSignificant investment and improvements have already been made.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 70 additional midwives have been recruited and will be in post by the end of December. Thirty of those are already in post and we are now fully compliant with healthcare safe staffing legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other 42 have been recruited to provide additional resilience and to future-proof our maternity service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Hiscox continued: \u201cI want to reiterate the apology we made to staff earlier in the year when they told us about their concerns over staffing numbers and about a working culture that was difficult, and where bad behaviours were tolerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not acceptable in any workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe inspection report from HIS rightly picked up on the actions which are still ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to HIS for their expertise and remain committed to working with them and other professional organisations to improve our service for our women, people who use the service and our teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

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\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Scotland\u2019s largest health boards is facing a funding gap of over \u00a3140m by the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-255662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}