NHS Grampian agrees plan to save £177m with vacancy freezes and cheaper drugs

NHS Grampian has outlined plans to save £42 million over the next 12 months, including vacancy freezes and not filling posts if staff leave, but it will take on more graduate nurses.

The regional health board is in a very tough financial situation and is one of the most overspent boards in Scotland.

Members of the NHS Grampian board met on Thursday to discuss its proposed saving plan that should result in £177m of cuts over the next five years.

The health board has been warned it needs to save £40m over the next year, but can run a maximum deficit of £36m.

While this is lower than this year’s £45m limit, it means NHS Grampian must save even more money and make more essential cuts.

But health chiefs are confident they can finish the financial year under deficit if the positive progress already made can continue.

NHS Grampian is expecting to face pressure from pay and general inflation, rising drug costs, as well as new buildings and service changes.

While the region’s population isn’t growing overall, it is ageing.

The number of people aged 75 and over will rise by 10% over the next five years, creating increasing demand for care.

The financial plan forecasts that the health board will have a deficit of £25m next year and £15m in 2028, but will break even by 2029.

It also makes it clear that no new developments can be funded unless they are affordable, except those tied to national government programmes.

NHS Grampian’s value and sustainability plan revealed it will be making £42m of savings this year, but what are they?

Firstly, overspend support to integration joint boards (IJBs) across Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray will be cut by £13m.

Finance director Alex Stephen explained that work has been carried out with the IJBs to ensure that stopping the funding wouldn’t cause any operational issues.

However, he stated the boards were managing to bring their deficits down on their own, so extra funding wouldn’t be needed.

NHS Grampian will aim to give patients cheaper drugs where possible in a bid to save £4.6m.

Changes will also be made to job roles and the way health sites operate to claw back £4m.

This will include day‑to‑day cost control by managers, vacancy freezes, tighter overtime rules, and cutting non‑essential spending.

Meanwhile, a further £3.2m will be saved by stopping the use of locum doctors through staff planning and recruitment.

Catering staff changes and contract management will be carried out as part of a kitchen reorganisation at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital. This is expected to save £700,000.

But NHS Grampian states there will be no redundancies.

Instead, posts will be removed through vacancy freezes, redesign, retire‑and‑return options, and not filling jobs when staff leave.

Other savings include contract reviews, reducing stock, reviewing invoices and clamping down on purchases, which should save £2.8m.

A proposal to stop paediatric elective surgery on public holidays plus other measures should claw back £1.59m.

Finally, changes will be made within mental health and learning disability to save £1.16m.

This will see some services merge together, supplementary staffing cut and admin reduced.

But there is some good news to come from the meeting.

£2.9m is expected to come through better management of nursing, midwifery and allied health professions.

This saving will come from reducing the use of pricy agency and bank staff and employing more newly graduated nurses.

Improvement director Phil Tydeman revealed that the nursing and midwifery leadership team has reduced agency spend by £10m over the last three years.