THE UK Government is being urged to match Holyrood’s per capita spending on the NHS to allow Holyrood to increase the Scottish health service budget by more than £4 billion.
The call from the SNP comes ahead of the second reading of the NHS Funding Bill in Commons today.
The party calculates that their proposals would allow the Scottish Government to increase NHS Scotland funding by more than £4bn by the end of this UK parliament in 2024-25.
SNP MPs will also bring forward an NHS Protection Bill to protect the NHS from any future trade deals.
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Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNP’s shadow health secretary, said: “While the NHS is devolved in Scotland, it cannot escape the impact of Tory austerity if we remain a part of Brexit Britain.
“The SNP Scottish Government has significantly raised funding to improve our NHS, and extend free personal care to even more people, while the Tory Government has drastically cut social care funding and undermined the NHS in England with a decade of outsourcing, fragmentation and frozen budgets.”
Whitford continued: “All health services are facing challenges, particularly rising demand and workforce shortages, but while the SNP is focussed on improving our NHS, Boris Johnson threatens it with his disastrous Brexit deal, which is already making
it harder to attract NHS staff, and his trade deal with Trump which would see soaring drug costs.
“That is why the SNP are calling on the UK Government to match Scottish per capita funding – so that the Scottish Government can increase funding for Health and Social Care by over £4bn by 2025 to help it secure a bright future.”
Westminster cuts to frontline services in Scotland total £1.5bn in real terms between 2010/11 and 2019/20. However, frontline health spending in Scotland is £136 per person, or 6.3%, higher than in England.
Social care funding is also £130 per capita, 43%, higher than in England.
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