Dispelling the Myths #6: The NHS

Will we have an NHS?

The SNP are committed to a Scottish NHS that is publically funded and publically delivered. We will not follow the privatisation agenda of Westminster.

The SNP government has met its commitment to protect the NHS budget – there will be a real terms increase in the frontline NHS budget in each of the next three years. On top of this, our action to phase out prescription charges shows our commitment an NHS that is free at the point of need. Since 2011, prescriptions in Scotland have been free, benefitting everyone in Scotland, including some 600,000 adults with an annual income of less than £16,000 who were not previously entitled to free prescriptions.

The NHS in Scotland is already run independently by the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament. Becoming independent will not change this arrangement. And despite the best efforts of the No campaign’s Project Fear to scaremonger on the issue, becoming independent will not make it more difficult for people in Scotland to get specialist treatment elsewhere in the UK. Experienced kidney specialist, Dr Izhar Khan, speaking in a personal capacity, has described the claim as "nothing more than scaremongering".

Successive UK governments have asset stripped and dismantled NHS England. Reforms recently brought in by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition signal marketisation of healthcare south of the border that could spell the end of NHS England as we know it.