No privatisation of the NHS in Scotland says Sturgeon: ‘not now, not ever’

The future of the NHS in Scotland can be secured only through independence, health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has said.

She also warned the alcohol industry that any legal challenge to minimum pricing will only delay the benefits.

Controversial coalition government reforms of the NHS in England could hit Scotland’s budget, Ms Sturgeon told the SNP conference in Glasgow.

The overhaul south of the Border, which could see 49 per cent of beds in each hospital occupied by private patients, would never happen in Scotland she said.

“The Tory/Liberal Democrat NHS reforms will profoundly change the NHS south of the Border. The days of a truly public national health service in England will be at an end,” she said.

“Let me say loudly and clearly. Not here. Not now. Not ever. As long as we in charge, there will be no privatisation of the NHS in Scotland.”

But she warned that reforms south of the Border pose “one very real risk to the NHS” in Scotland, as a result of the move to let more private patients fill NHS hospitals.

“It will create a two-tier system not between the NHS and the private sector, but within the health service. It is a betrayal of everything that the NHS is about.

“The risk to Scotland is not in policy terms – we will never go down that road.

“The risk to us is financial.

As hospitals in England get more of their money from private patients I believe that we will see future UK governments freeze or reduce public funding for the NHS.

“They will still claim that NHS funding is protected, but the reality will that less of it will come from the public purse. As things stand, that would have a direct effect on Scotland’s budget.”

But Ms Sturgeon was accused of scaremongering by Tory health spokesman Jackson Carlaw, who said: “Nicola Sturgeon is just being silly. There is no threat to the NHS in Scotland from Westminster.”