The Scottish Government has been challenged to match pledges on the NHS made today by Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Scottish Conservatives said the announcements on health service spending during his keynote conference speech finally laid to rest scare stories run by the SNP ahead of the independence referendum.
Mr Cameron told the audience in Birmingham that, under a Conservative government, spending on the NHS would be protected for at least the next five years.
In contrast, the SNP attempted to mask £450 million worth of cuts it had been warned it will have to make in coming years to the NHS in Scotland.
And as well as the health budget being protected in Westminster, the Scottish Government also received an additional £1.3 billion in Barnet Consequentials to spend on health in recent years.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw MSP said:
“The SNP scare story in the run up to the referendum has been nailed.
“The Prime Minister has promised once again to ringfence health spending and increase it in each year of the next parliament.
“This demolishes claims by the opposition of big budget cuts being on the way – quite the opposite.
“Now, instead of simply relying on consequentials in the next Scottish Parliament, which amounted to £1.3 billion in this one, the SNP should say what additional funding it will commit to Scotland’s NHS in that period.”
Being part of the UK resulted in an extra £1.3 billion for Scotland’s NHS over the lifetime of this parliament term:
http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2014/08/part-uk-provided-1-3bn-extra-nhs/
Prime Minister David Cameron made pledges on the NHS as part of his speech today:
The SNP tried to hide warnings it had to make £450 million of NHS savings in Scotland:
http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2014/09/snps-secret-450m-nhs-cuts-revealed/