Terminal decline

SCOTLAND’S NHS is looking increasingly unsafe in the SNP’s hands. Concealed in the small print of John Swinney’s budget was a £13million cut in spending on the training of nurses and midwives over the next three years.

Staffing levels have already fallen to a fouryear low. The full-time staffing equivalent for nurses and midwives is now 1,275 fewer than in 2009. This is a crisis for the NHS.

At the same time, doctors are baling out of GP practice at the earliest opportunity, despite the high salaries they enjoy on paper, because s o much of t heir remuneration is being diverted to staffing and administration costs in increasingly bureaucratic practices.

Hospital doctors are shunning the harsh conditions and demanding hours of A&E practice, causing a staffing crisis in accident and emergency departments. In all these cases a significant factor in the problem is inadequate funding. What are the priorities that the SNP regards as more important than frontline health care for Scots?