Alex Salmond launches campaign with £1bn pledge to the NHS

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has promised to spend more than £1 billion on Scotland's NHS if the SNP is returned to power at the Holyrood elections in May.

Mr Salmond said the pledge to spend the money over the next four years would be one of the key themes of the SNP's election campaign, which was launched yesterday in Edinburgh.

However, the First Minister said support for the Nationalists, who are trailing Labour in opinion polls, would have to increase from about 33 per cent to 40 per cent if his party was to win a second four-year term.

Mr Salmond pledged that a re-elected SNP government would "protect the health service for the duration of the next parliament".

The First Minister said the extra money Scotland received as a result of UK government spending on health in England - Barnett consequentials - would cover the 1bn plans.

Under the Barnett scheme, knock-on cash is handed to Scotland through the formula used to allocate money to devolved administrations.

Mr Salmond has previously promised to pass all Barnett consequentials for health on to Scotland's NHS, but the previous commitment was just for one year, rather than a full parliamentary term.

The First Minister's pledge is based on UK funding for Scotland continuing at similar levels beyond 2011-12, when 280 million has been earmarked for the Scottish health budget.

Mr Salmond said: "We've protected the health service in real terms through the four years we've been in administration, and we're now extending that commitment to the next four years.

"There can be no better way to start a campaign than by making a pledge on the most important service of them all - that is the National Health Service."

Health secretary and deputy SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said the 1bn pledge was "not matched" by other parties.

She added: "I believe this commitment puts us on the side of the public in Scotland.

"Poll after poll shows how important the NHS is to people - people do not want to see cuts to the NHS budget. We are on the side of people who care about and value the health service."

The pledge over NHS funding came a day after finance secretary John Swinney said the health budget would be the only portfolio to increase in cash terms, according to budget assumptions up to 2015.

Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon also unveiled a campaign poster on Edinburgh's Royal Mile carrying the message: "A Scottish Government working for Scotland."

The poster contains a barcode-like image which allows some mobile phone users to navigate to a campaign website by taking a photograph.

The claim that no other party matched the SNP commitment to protect health spending was challenged by Tory health spokesman Murdo Fraser.He said: "Not only do Scottish Conservatives have the same pledge to protect spending on the NHS as the SNP, it was our idea first of all."

Liberal Democrat campaign manager George Lyon said the SNP had "failed" the NHS.

Labour's health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said: "If the NHS budget was set to rise, then health boards would not now be implementing plans to cut hundreds of nurses and other frontline staff."