Scottish independence: Brown attacks SNP over NHS

THE Scottish Government plans to make £450 million of cuts to NHS spending, a leaked document has suggested.
Mr Salmond said cuts claims were mythical and pointed to plans passed this year that the overall budget goes from £11.9 billion to £12.7 billion next year. Picture: TSPLMr Salmond said cuts claims were mythical and pointed to plans passed this year that the overall budget goes from £11.9 billion to £12.7 billion next year. Picture: TSPL
Mr Salmond said cuts claims were mythical and pointed to plans passed this year that the overall budget goes from £11.9 billion to £12.7 billion next year. Picture: TSPL

The revelation led First Minister Alex Salmond to deny that his government plans to slash health spending to plug a black hole in public spending.

However, it led former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown to claim that the SNP had lied when they said a Yes vote for independence was the only way to save the NHS.

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According to reports, the secret papers, which were presented to a meeting of health board chief executives and civil servants last month, new obligations are “not fully funded” and the “status quo in terms of service and workforce planning is not an option”.

Opponents of independence said that it explained why SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney had delayed bringing forward his Budget until after the referendum.

In an impassioned attack, Mr Brown told Labour pro-UK activists in Clydebank: “It is time to nail the lies that have been told by the SNP.”

He said: “They [the SNP] lost the battle and argument for independence on its own merits. Alistair and others proved that the risk was too big and now they try to win by using the NHS as their battering ram. They are not telling you the truth.

He added: “The NHS lie of the SNP has been exposed. If the SNP continue to say they are powerless to protect the NHS in Scotland let them make way for a Labour government in Scotland which will protect the NHS.

“The biggest threat to the NHS in Scotland is actually the SNP. They will allow £450 million in cuts which they haven’t announced before the referendum but in the days after the referendum.”

At a rally in Glasgow former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy and Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander also rejected SNP suggestions that a No vote would mean that cuts from Westminster and a pro-privatisation government south of the border could threaten Scotland’s NHS.

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Mr Kennedy said: “The SNP has suddenly raised it as the flag of fear that there will be the destruction of the NHS. It’s complete rubbish.

“It’s been suggested there’s a £450 million shortfall in the NHS and this means more austerity and more of a risk of privatisation.

“That shortfall, together with the uncertainty surrounding the SNP’s plans could mean more austerity or even privatisation.”

Tory MSP Gavin Brown said: “The revelation about secret NHS cuts explains why the Scottish Government was so desperate to delay publishing next year’s Budget until months after the Referendum.”

But Mr Salmond said cuts claims were “mythical” and pointed to plans passed in the Scottish Parliament earlier this year that the overall budget goes from £11.9 billion to £12.7 billion next year.

He told Good Morning Scotland: “What this paper does is part of the normal planning in the health service.

“It says that we’ll need 3.5% efficiencies in order to meet commitments in the rising cost of procedures in the health service.

“In the last six years we have managed 3% and that’s all been ploughed back, every single penny of it, into the health service. That’s why we have increased funding in real terms.”