News / Scott’s NHS fears
SHETLAND MSP Tavish Scott has seized on a leaked report raising the prospect of the NHS in Scotland facing “more cuts and centralisation of services”.
A paper published by the BBC on Tuesday suggested a radical cost-saving plan would have to be implemented following Thursday’s independence referendum.
Presented to a meeting of health board chiefs and civil servants in August, the paper reportedly suggests the NHS faces a £400 million funding gap between 2015-2017 – meaning major changes will be needed to ensure boards break even.
But SNP health minister Alex Neil insisted the government was committed to “protecting and increasing the NHS budget” despite cuts imposed by Westminster.
Scott said the failure of Scottish Government policies meant people across Scotland faced hundreds of millions of pounds in new cuts to local services, showing “the true scale of hypocrisy from the nationalists over health”.
“Health services are under serious pressure in Shetland,” he said. “Mental health and many other vital areas are underfunded. GP practices face huge recruitment challenges. None of this is sorted by independence.
“To top it all the nationalist government have tried to hide their own failures on policy and on resources.”
Scott added: “The new powers that will come to Scotland to strengthen the Scottish Parliament if Scotland votes no include a guarantee on health funding. No such guarantee comes from separation.”
Responding to the leaked report, Neil said the SNP had “protected Scotland’s NHS from the Tories’ cuts, and with independence we can ensure that it is never again under threat from Westminster’s dangerous obsession with austerity”.
He added: “To ensure we can continue to develop the NHS, it’s important that NHS boards regularly discuss their future plans to inform budget discussions with Scottish government officials, and to identify how we will continue to deliver quality care and treatment.
“We will continue to develop our health service to meet the changing demands of the people of Scotland, and that’s why we’ve already legislated to integrate health and social care from April next year.
“This integration of services is particularly important to ensure our elderly population is kept well and provided with care in the best setting for their wellbeing.”
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