Sturgeon predicts NHS flight to Scotland

SCOTTISH health minister Nicola Sturgeon claims that English doctors and nurses may flock north to avoid the turmoil of yet another NHS reorganisation down south.

• Scottish Government health minister Nicola Sturgeon said UK government reforms would spell the end of a truly 'National' health service in the UK context. Photograph: Neil Hanna

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, Sturgeon rejected warnings that the reforms in England could lead to a "brain drain" of specialists and consultants from Scotland who may be tempted south if the English market-based system begins to offer bumper salaries to attract senior staff.

Instead, she said the more stable situation here was likely to create the conditions in which health professionals would be happier to move to Scotland.

The health secretary also called time on the 60-year history of the NHS as a UK institution, claiming the Conservative reforms spelled out in England last week have taken the "national out of the National Health Service". The SNP deputy leader says that the radical changes to health care in England - with more power going to GPs - have now set in stone separate English and Scottish health services.

Sturgeon said she attended a reception last week in which the English reforms were discussed. "There were quite a few people up from south of the Border and the thing that was being said to me most frequently was we wish we could come to Scotland," she said.

"Of course, we have to be competitive within a UK market but we've got lots to attract the top people - our tradition and reputation in medicine, our research capacity, as well as the fact that we do pay consultants reasonably well. So, yes, we have always got to have one eye on our competitiveness for the best people, but we do very well in attracting the best people to Scotland."

Sturgeon said she would oppose any similar introduction of competition in the NHS in Scotland, saying productivity and innovation would be increased by "naming and shaming" poor hospitals and by improved management.

The English reforms, unveiled by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley last week, will allow GPs to commission services from either NHS hospitals or the private sector. Ministers insist the system will give more power to patients and GPs enabling them to seek out the best service.

But critics say the moves will lead to a patchwork where unprofitable services will be "allowed to fail", and where people will end up moving to live near a good GP.

Sturgeon confirmed she would not be adopting any of the measures proposed by Lansley. On whether patients would experience a different type of health service either side of the Border, she added: "The one thing that may hopefully still exist in common is that care will be free at the point of need but after that there will not be a National UK Health Service."

She said: "Summing it up, they are taking the national out the National Health Service. I can't see as how you can have something that can be described as an NHS. You will have postcode lotteries (in which different quality of service is offered in different areas] becoming the norm."

SNP ministers are already beginning to describe NHS Scotland as "the Scottish National Health Service" to emphasise its distinct identity. Sturgeon added: "I've not set out to deliberately make the Scottish NHS different from other parts of the NHS in the UK. A lot of the differences stem from changes that are being made in England, not in Scotland."

She said NHS Scotland - as well as the organisation in Wales - was the model which most closely resembled the founding principles of the service. She disagreed with moves to punish or reward hospitals financially for their performance, claiming patients would suffer if this was done.

Sturgeon said she wanted to drive up standards through inspections and management. "We have a system that means there is no hiding places for hospitals that fall behind because reports will be published."

Pointing to infection rates, she said: "We set up a new inspectorate that inspects cleanliness and we have halved our rates of hospital infections. What is the penalty? They (hospitals] get shamed in public when these reports are published."