§ Mr. Bill WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has revised the financial allocations to health boards for 1988–89.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythI have today allocated £83.4 million to health boards to allow them to meet the full cost of the pay awards to doctors, dentists, nurses and other professional staff. This brings to £1,744 million the allocation to health boards to meet their gross recurrent expenditure commitments on hospital and community health services in 1988–89. The £1,744 million figure includes £19.69 million allocated for specific commitments, including national cardiac surgery services, lithotripsy and AIDS.
After expected income is taken into account the net cash limited allocations to individual health boards are as follows:
Health boards—Net recurrent allocation £ thousand Argyll and Clyde 124,286 Ayrshire and Arran 93,048 Borders 26,984 Dumfries and Galloway 44,687 Fife 87,041 Forth Valley 81,512 Grampian 159,966 Greater Glasgow 452,300 Highland 65,440 Lanarkshire 143,256 Lothian 279,788 Orkney 4,904 Shetland 6,015 Tayside 160,792 Western Isles 8,950 The additional allocation for pay awards means that hospital and community health service allocations in Scotland are now more than £1 billion higher than they were in 1979–80.