Hansard

I will highlight some points. Thank you very much for the opportunity to come here again. The accountancy review must be undertaken sooner rather than later because there is an in-built disadvantage—I will come to that again in a moment or two. My big concern is about the joint boards. What will be the boards’ notional way of deciding on the appropriate funding, remembering that each hospice is in a different place? If there is an in-built disadvantage, it will be very difficult for St Margaret’s to come up with a cohesive argument for an individual joint board, so the situation must be sorted very soon. There have been difficulties with the choice of accountancy firm. Looking at what has been presented to you, I know that it seems that we are getting somewhere, but we have not yet decided on an accountancy firm. The last time that I was at the committee, I suggested—maybe the committee will endorse this—that we use our weight of opinion to tell the Government that, if it wants to look outside Scotland for an accountancy firm, that is fine but it might be difficult. Perhaps we should suggest that a chair be put in place who would take the matter on board. We could, for example, approach a retired High Court judge who may have had some contact or contract with the Government or the health board to appoint an accountancy firm. That is just me speaking—I am not speaking on behalf of the hospice and I have not been briefed on that possibility, but I think that that might be a solution to move the matter on so that it does not get stuck. I just went through some of the information that I gathered previously. If you will indulge me, convener, I will quote from a paper from 10 July 2015. These are the figures for the funding per bed at hospices that are all in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The figure for Accord Hospice is £159,891; the figure for Ardgowan Hospice is £153,083; I do not have a figure for the Marie Curie hospice; the figure for the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice is £140,471 per bed; and the figure for St Vincent’s Hospice comes in at £131,377. The figure for St Margaret’s is £53,328. The formula is crucial, but nobody that I have contacted, including the health board, can tell me what the formula is. The only way that we can get to the bottom of it is to have a proper review by an accountancy firm. I have posed the question, and you can clearly see that the formula is not based on the number of beds. The number of beds at the other hospices that I have mentioned is, respectively, 8, 8, 14 and 8, whereas it is 26 at St Margaret’s. The petitioner’s letter says: “The appointment of a firm of accountants was discussed in light of the fact that many of those accountancy firms approached by St Margaret of Scotland Hospice felt unable to participate in an accountancy review due to a conflict, by having carried out work in the past for either the Scottish Government or NHSGGC.” I do not want that to block progress. If we cannot find someone, my suggestion might get round that. It is good that there is a willingness to share information. However, we are talking about public money and, if there is information on each of the hospices, it should be published. That will let the committee see the figures and make a judgment. We are coming to the end of a parliamentary session and there might be pressure on the committee to close the petition. Before it is closed, though, we should see that the outcome of the review is published. After that, I will be content and I will not come back to the committee to ask it to keep the petition open.