Letters / SNP shortchanged NHS
Brian Nugent SNP (SNP raised NHS funding; SN 7/5/15), you’ve retreated from your original position that Shetland was not being “short-changed” by the SNP Scottish government on NHS funding and are now trying to bring it into the present tense, AFTER the SNP has been forced, thanks to some brilliant work over the last five years by local NHS staff who made the case, helped by Alistair and Tavish’s interventions and… ahem!…. the General Election.
The SNP has admitted the formula they introduced in 2009/10 resulted in NHS Shetland receiving £4 million per year less than the new arrangement, just in time for the election.
Assuming Shetland received £2 million per year over the five years above what the 2009/10 formula allocated, then NHS Shetland has been under-funded by: £(4M – 2M) per year = £2 million per year.
It follows that, over the past five years, NHS Shetland has been “short-changed” by £2 million/year for five years, a total of ten million pounds!
This money has been lost forever – unless, of course, Holyrood intends to pay it back?
What are the chances of that, Brian Nugent?
John Tulloch
Lyndon
Arrochar
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