PLANS to "twin" Scotland's three island health boards with mainland authorities could be the start of the "slippery slope towards centralisation", opponents claimed yesterday.
Talks have taken place on proposals to formalise the links that already exist between boards in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles and those in Highland and Grampian in areas such as finance, human resources and planning.
The Scottish Govern
ment has stressed the move will not threaten the independence of the small island boards. But the plans have raised fears that island boards could be merged into mainland authorities, or closed down altogether.
Ross Finnie, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, said: "There is a real danger this is the start of the slippery slope towards centralisation."
NHS Western Isles has been in the spotlight over budget problems and has had five chief executives since 2004.
Angus Campbell, the vice-convener of Western Isles Council, said the twinning plan had raised some concerns.
"The news about these proposed new twinning arrangements pose questions about the joint services agenda which we and NHS Western Isles are currently following," he said.
"We anticipated closer integration of services with the health board, rather than the health board strengthening ties with mainland health authorities.
"There is still residual fear in some quarters about the long-term future of island health authorities, and this proposed development only creates further uncertainty."
However, Garry Coutts, the chairman of NHS Highland, which absorbed part of NHS Argyll and Clyde in 2006, said there were no plans for mergers. "Not only is that not on the agenda, it is very specifically off the agenda," he said. "That has been made absolutely clear. It has been agreed that there is merit in having some sort of mutual support arrangements formalised in places."
He denied that it would lead to smaller boards losing some independence, or being "overseen" by larger bodies.
"That's not what it is about," he said. "There will be no decision-making transferring, or management accountability transferring. It's about providing support and advice."
Sandra Laurenson, the chief executive of NHS Shetland, welcomed the move. She said: "We already work with NHS Grampian on clinical services, so we can see benefits of working together on support services as well. The independence of island boards has been confirmed. We have no worries."
A spokeswoman for NHS Western Isles said strengthening of partnerships between island and mainland boards had been discussed recently.
She said the board already had formal and informal partnership arrangements with a number of other boards.
She added: "The purpose of establishing stronger formal partnerships would be to strengthen the capacity in the Western Isles, not to dilute it."
The full article contains 450 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
