Government’s failure to monitor NHS boards properly has had a significant impact on services and financial performance, according to a Scottish parliament committee.

In a letter to the cabinet secretary for health and sport, Jeane Freeman, a cross-party committee of MSPs has called for better scrutiny to identify and address failings among Scotland’s health boards.

In recent months, the health and sport committee has been examining the performance of the nation’s regional health boards.

‘Common themes and failings’ that arose from evidence sessions with health board officials are outlined in the committee’s letter to Ms Freeman.

Expressing concerns particularly about the financial situation faced by Scotland’s health boards, committee convener and Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald draws attention to NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Borders and NHS Highland specifically – all have received financial aid from the Scottish Government in recent years.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran confirmed they received £23m in brokerage from government in 2017 and will continue to need financial aid, while NHS Borders stated they would need between £15m and £20m in 2019-20.

NHS Highland confirmed it received brokerage of £18m in 2018-19.

The letter also highlights that seven out of the ten health boards the committee took evidence from had ‘significant challenges relating to delayed discharge’.

Delayed discharges in Scotland increased last year from 493,614 to 521,215 – a rise of 6% overall and MSPs are calling for it to be tackled as an ‘utmost priority’.

Child and adolescent mental health services waiting times and cancer treatment waits are also highlighted alongside recruitment difficulties as areas where a lack of monitoring has contributed to targets being missed.

Convener of the health and sport committee Lewis Macdonald said: “Our evidence sessions with the various NHS Boards have revealed a number of concerning issues which must be addressed.

“We want to see better monitoring of NHS Board performance, identifying issues early and addressing those issues.

“All of our NHS Boards face financial pressures, but we know that several of them are repeatedly missing financial targets and needing to receive financial aid from the Scottish Government to provide services.

“Delayed discharge numbers continue to rise and this is clearly a concerning trend which needs to be tackled immediately. Patient waiting times, particularly around cancer treatment and access to mental health services, are also rising and we want to know the reasons for this.”

Substantial spending on locum staff is another concern raised – in 2018-19, NHS Highland spent £12.8m on medical agency staff, an increase of 8.3% on the previous year.

Despite promotion of the government’s flagship policy of integration, ‘the lack of progress in the integration of health and social care amongst NHS boards’ is highlighted by the committee, which says it ‘hasn’t seen any evidence that this is happening across all boards and that strong senior leadership is required to bring about this transformational change in health and social care services.’