A BID to get health chiefs in Argyll and Bute to pause a public consultation on budget savings options has failed.
Takki Sulaiman, of the area’s third sector interface, asked for a hiatus to allow for new savings options to be explored for the area’s health and social care partnership (HSCP).
Possible savings options totalling £3.4 million were listed in a report, with an overall budget gap of £16.4m forecast before any savings.
All eight voting members of the HSCP’s integration joint board (IJB) voted to advance to a public consultation, which will begin in due course, with decisions due at the board’s next meeting in March. The discussion took place at a meeting in Campbeltown on Wednesday, January 28.
Mr Sulaiman said: “Nobody wants to harm our communities. We talked about a visit to Campbeltown Hospital this morning, and it was really clear that our teams are under pressure.
“If these cuts come into place, it would mean further stress on our services, and it would be in a similar position next year, looking to increase thresholds of access to care further.
“It is not a sustainable position and it is my belief we do not have a sustainable budget. If we were a business we might be close to insolvency.
“We have a duty to balance the budget and promote healthcare. We should be looking to work with our communities to take the strain from services, but this model moves us in the opposite direction.
“We should pause the consultation, as it forms the debate. If we send the questions out now, it sends a message that there are inequities here, and we need to identify them.
“I am looking for alternative ways to balance our budget and buy us more time.”
Councillor Gary Mulvaney (Conservative, Helensburgh Central) responded: “A lot of what Mr Sulaiman says, a lot of us would agree with, but there are some differences.
“Where I strenuously disagree is on stopping the consultation on the current proposals. We need to find a balanced budget and comply with statutory responsibilities, and I would expect proposals to comply with these aspects.
“Mr Sulaiman is the third sector representative, and there will be impacts on that, and there will be impacts elsewhere, but to stop the savings and abandon all those months of work does not take us forward at all.
“Councillor Kieron Green (Independent, Oban North and Lorn) asked Evan Beswick (HSCP chief officer) how confident he was that we could find other savings.
“The straight answer from Mr Beswick was that the has low confidence in finding a different set of savings.
“The stability of the IJB would be hanging by a thread. We need to progress the work.”
Councillor Dougie McFadzean (SNP, Kintyre and the Islands) added: “I agree with Mr Sulaiman in my heart, but in my head, it needs to be ready for the IJB in March.”
A roll call vote among voting members of the IJB saw all eight vote in favour of progressing to public consultation.
Councillors Mulvaney, Green and McFadzean are three voting members, along with Councillor Ross Moreland (Liberal Democrat, Dunoon), board chair Graham Bell, Janice Preston, Karen Leach and Emily Austin.
