SIGNIFICANT and ongoing pressures within NHS Fife have resulted in a budget overspend of more than £19 million.

Finance chief Margo McGurk outlined the service's "hugely-challenged" financial picture to board members on Tuesday.

The figures revealed a £19.6 million overspend by the end of November, well over the predicted amount of £10.4 million.

A report given to bosses broke this down to an £8.865m core overspend, a £6.939m financial gap in the approved plan, and £3.758m for unfunded COVID-related costs.

Ms McGurk said: "As with all NHS boards, the NHS Fife financial position is hugely challenged and that is set to continue.

"At the end of November, we were reporting an overspend of £19.6 million and anticipate that we will out-turn the year at an overspend of just over £19 million.

"Our financial plan was to deliver an overspend of £10.4 million, we are significantly beyond that and anticipate co-operation will be required from the Scottish Government to support us.

"In terms of our financial improvement sustainability programme, we have a target of £11.7 million, we have delivered just over £6 million of that to the end of November.

"It is hugely challenging to deliver anything on a recurring basis as a result of the continued pressure on our system but we continue to work on that."

The core overspend reflects "significant and ongoing" pressures across acute unscheduled care services, a reduction in planned care funding and an increasing cost pressure within external commissioning.

Meanwhile, health delegated services reported an underspend at the end of November of £3.827m including fully-funded COVID costs of £6.982m.

The capital budget was within the anticipated £29.282m, with a recorded spend of £17.831m to November.