A health board trying to achieve overall savings of £22.4m, says it is within £2m of achieving its financial break-even target by the end of March.

At the start of this financial year NHS Highland said it was facing a potential overspend of £15.6m with the bulk of it, £10.5m, relating to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. But that projected total overspend has now been reduced by over £13m.

In addition in the last financial year the health board received £2.5m from the Scottish Government to prevent it going into the red.

However NHS Highland's director of finance Nick Kenton will tell the board when it meets next week that achieving the breakeven will depend on continuing to deliver savings and successfully managing cost and service pressures, particularly at Raigmore .

Mr Kenton will explain that the position had been improved by £6.2 million on that reported to the last board meeting, and that this was as a direct result of improvements in forecasts in all but one of the board's operational units.

These improvements, have been made "despite significant pressures in additional activity and drug costs".

Another significant reason for the improvement has been the additional £6.5 million announced by the Scottish Government in December. It has been agreed with ministers that NHS Highland would take £3 million of this funding in 2014/15 and the remainder in 2015/16.

Mr Kenton will report on the "challenging" overall savings target of £22.4 million, and will report on progress made towards meeting this goal.

He will tell the board: "It is important that an absolute focus and attention to detail is maintained in order to ensure delivery of the final £2 million required and the successful management of the underlying risks."