Extra healthcare funding "must not be squandered by SNP" warn opposition parties

The extra £1bn provided for Scotland’s health service “must not be squandered by SNP mismanagement”, opposition politicians have warned.

Jackie Baillie

The Scottish Government’s health and social care budget is set to swell by £1bn, paid for largely by increasing tax on Scotland’s highest earners.

The budget commits over £9bn for workforce pay, including the current £515m pay deal which is currently being considered by healthcare trade unions.

Several aspects of health spending, such as mental health, early years and the Sportscotland agency, have had their budgets frozen, representing a real-terms cut of around ten percent due to inflation.

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “Our NHS is on life support, and this increase in funding is not only welcome but essential.

“This extra money must not be squandered through SNP mismanagement, which has seen millions wasted every year on delayed discharge, agency staff and locums.

“We need a real catch-up plan for our NHS with clear and deliverable measures, so we can restore our NHS to the standard patients and staff deserve.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “There is a lot of pain in this budget. Pain for mental health services, for a voluntary sector on it knees that will now face another £4m cut and a local government uplift that is barely half what COSLA have asked for in order to keep the lights on.

“I presented the Deputy First Minister with options for further savings so I am disappointed that the vast and unnecessary bureaucracy that is the ministerial takeover of social care is still going ahead.

“There is still time to turn this around, if he cancelled those particular plans, that would allow him to offer some hope for the 200,000 sufferers of long Covid on whom this budget is silent."

Announcing the budget, deputy first minister John Swinney said the 2023/24 health and social care budget would be set at £19.138bn, an increase on the £18.020bn spent on the sector in 2022/23.

“If we want to be able to depend on the NHS, we have to be prepared to pay for it,” Swinney told the Scottish Parliament.

“When the UK Government set out its autumn statement, it gave rise to consequential funding for the NHS in Scotland of £291m.

“I intend to pass on that funding consequential but I do not believe it is nearly enough for the critical task that we ask our staff in the National Health Service to do.

“As a result of the choices I have made on income tax, I am in a position, in one year, to increase the amount we spend on health and social care in Scotland by over £1bn.”

Health Boards across Scotland will receive a six percent boost in funding as part of the Budget – bringing their total budget to £13.7bn which includes over £9bn for staff pay.

Health secretary Humza Yousaf said: “Frontline workers are the foundation of our health and care services and I am extremely grateful for them for getting us through the pandemic and facing-down one of the toughest winters in NHS history.

“This historic settlement took some difficult decisions, but we are steadfast in efforts to address the immediate pressures on health and social care services, and support fair work and pay.”