NHS's top risks revealed

A LIST of 16 'risks' facing NHS Dumfries and Galloway have been set out.

A report for the regional board included the most up-to-date corporate risk register for the organisation.

And it reveals five factors are currently deemed to be a 'very high' risk for the region. They are:

• Failure of the (health) board to meet financial targets.
• Risk that sectors of the population will continue to experience health inequalities.
• Risk there will be no improvement to the health and wellbeing of the population.
• Patients may come to harm as a result of a delay in their discharge process or as a result of service capacity issues.
• Access to NHS General Dental Services

Another eight issues are of 'high risk' and that list includes not having a sustainable workforce; inadequate infrastructure to meet both physical and technological service user needs in future; a failure to maintain information security standards leading to loss of reputation and severe financial and disruptive consequence.

Even more concerning is a 'failure to be able to staff the unit to national standards resulting in suboptimal care within the neonatal unit'.

A workshop is taking place soon for health bosses to review the register.