Campaign and petition email responses

Statement on the NHS

The 2023/24 Scottish Budget provides record funding of over £19bn for the Scottish NHS, providing new investment of over £1bn and supporting recovery and reform to secure sustainable public services.

This goes far beyond the SNP’s commitment on to pass on all frontline Consequentials and means since 2006/07, NHS resource funding in Scotland has more than doubled.

NHS staffing is also up to historically high levels under the SNP Scottish Government, up by over 28,800 WTE, or 22.7%.

However, the 4 National Health Services are under pressure, and the Scottish Government has introduced a Winter Resilience Plan to get the SNHS through this most difficult period.

The £600m Winter Resilience plan includes:

• Recruitment of 1,000 additional staff over the course of this Winter, including £8m to recruit up to 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas as well as 250 support staff across acute, primary care and mental health;
• Flexibility for Health Boards to offer ‘pension recycling’, where unused employer contributions can be paid as additional salary, to support the retention of staff;
• £45m for the Scottish Ambulance Service to support ongoing recruitment, service development and winter planning;
• £124m to assist health and social care partnerships expand care at home capacity – with aim of reducing delays in discharge;
• Of the £528m allocated to Health and Social Care Partnerships for winter pressures funding, £200m has been set aside to increase the hourly rate of pay for those working in social care to £10.50
• Extension of the Social Care Staff Support Fund to 31 March 2023, to ensure staff receive full pay when in COVID isolation.

However, there is only so much the Scottish Government can do with the limited financial powers it has under devolution.

It is of urgent necessity that the UK Government acts to mitigate the NHS crisis in England and delivers additional Consequentials to the devolved nations to help the NHS and patients through the winter.

The Tories recycling old money and claiming it is new is not enough.

Although NHS employment in Scotland has risen under the SNP and Scotland does not face the vacancy crisis England does, there are staff shortages that have been exacerbated by Brexit. The SNP call on the UK Government to end its futile and harmful barriers to NHS recruitment of European and other foreign staff.

The SNP in Government will continue to support the Scottish NHS, and in Westminster will continue to call on the UK Government to uplift pay for NHS staff, increase NHS funding in England, and deliver Consequentials to Scotland.