BMA Scotland has called on the Scottish Government to scrap its plan to reduce Scotland’s 14 health boards to two and start again, warning the proposals were announced without proper consultation or detail.
Dr Nóra Murray-Cavanagh, the new chair of BMA Scotland’s council, told The Times that the union has urged Health Secretary Angela Constance to “rip it up and start again, take a blank page, ask the question: ‘What is the purpose of this? What are you trying to do?’”
First Minister John Swinney announced last month that legislation would create two boards covering the east and west of Scotland, describing the shake-up as “the most significant structural reform” of the NHS since devolution.
Murray-Cavanagh said there had been no consultation with the BMA before the announcement and warned the policy could be “bulldozed through” without clarity over how it would improve services.
Ms Constance defended the reforms, saying: “They will simplify how people get the care they need and remove the current geographic and bureaucratic barriers that exist between 14 health boards, which we know are currently causing unwanted variation and duplication.”