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The report found the health board relied on non-recurring savings in 2024/25, which has only increased future financial pressures. The auditors said the board's prediction that it would would achieve recurring savings of 3% each year until 2027/28 was an "optimistic assumption", and that performance against the current delivery plan is behind target. The Scottish government had rejected NHS Ayrshire & Arran's proposed savings plan on the grounds that the forecast for 2025/26 did not demonstrate "sufficient improvement" in the board's financial position. It was told to submit an updated plan in June this year - but that date passed without the external auditor seeing it. The Audit Scotland report says the board continues to rely on temporary staffing at a high cost, and that performance against national waiting time standards is mixed. It highlighted that 65.7% of A&E attendees were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours - well below the national 95% standard.
