Salmond on rack over NHS finance
First Minister accused of ‘doing more to privatise the health service’ than anyone else in Scotland
ALEX Salmond has been accused of doing more to privatise healthcare north of the Border than anyone else in Scottish history.
As First Minister’s Questions returned following last week’s historic poll, he faced challenges of hypocrisy over his referendum claim that only a Yes vote could protect the NHS.
It followed the Scottish Daily Mail revelation that millions of NHS patient records had been handed to a US firm as part of a £1.6million contract.
Mr Salmond, who also faced accusations of leading a ‘zombie government’ in his final eight weeks, insisted the IT contract had been awarded to private firms before, and was no more an example of privatisation than the Scottish parliament using Windows in its computers.
However, it is only the latest instance of the Scottish Government handing over public funds to private firms to run vital health services. And it exposes the double standards behind the Nationalists’ key campaign scare story – that
‘Was he going to tell us about cuts?’
Westminster privatisation would threaten the Scottish NHS after a Yes vote.
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont told the chamber that private healthcare spending had passed £100million a year under the SNP’s watch.
Last month, Audit Scotland figures showed it had risen by 37 per cent in the five years after the party came to power in 2007.
Miss Lamont said: ‘The First Minister – and his successor, Nicola Sturgeon – have increased the number of NHS patients treated privately by almost 500 per cent.
‘He spends £100million of public money on private health care.
‘This government privatised our health records during a campaign in which he claimed that the health service would be privatised if we did not vote for him – and he was privatising it anyway.
‘Will the First Minister be honest and admit he is doing more to privatise the health service than anyone else in Scotland?’
Only days before Scots went to the polls, a leaked secret dossier revealed that the NHS is facing cuts of £450million under the SNP.
The confidential paper showed health board chiefs were preparing to make huge savings over the next two years.
Miss Lamont told MSPs: ‘We now know, because of the courage of a whistleblower, there’s £450million worth of cuts that the First Minister is planning for the NHS but he decided not to tell us until after the referendum.
‘During the referendum campaign the First Minister secretly privatised the health records of every Scot, while warning of the dangers of privatisation.
‘Why does he say he is against privatising the health service when that is exactly what he is doing?
‘When was he planning to tell us about the £100million spend on private health? When was he going to tell us about privatisation of our health records? And when was he going to tell us, in honesty, about half a billion pounds worth of cuts to our precious health service?’
The deals struck by the Scottish Government are in sharp contrast with statements by Mr Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon in the run-up to the referendum vote.
On August 18, the First Minister claimed: ‘The only guarantee – and the only certain way of protecting our precious, publicly funded NHS – is independence.’
Six days later, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘People across Scotland are waking up to the fact that a Yes vote will give us an opportunity to ensure that we protect our NHS.’
News of the contract to help gather medical records from Scotl and’s 1,001 GP surgeries only emerged after the referendum vote – even though it was awarded to Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) by the Scottish Government on August 7.
Officials said they could not reveal details sooner as the deal was undergoing ‘due diligence’.
In the chamber yesterday, Mr Salmond denied that the deal amounted to privatisation, as health IT contracts had been handed to private firms since 1998.
The First Minister said: ‘The Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) is an information technology system, which replaces another IT system.
‘To describe a contract for it as privatisation is like saying that this parliament i s being privatised because we use the Windows system in our computers. It is a ridiculous argument to put forward.’
MSD’s IT arm, MSDi, has been awarded an initial three-year contract to help create a central database of GPs’ health records.
SPIRE will be used to help doctors and medical researchers identify health trends. However, the information will also be available to marketing and drugs companies, although they will not ‘have access to patient level information’.
The Scottish Government also promised the data would not be
‘Working on his book deal’
sold but that an ‘ administration fee’ will be payable by organisations requesting it.
Mr Salmond said: ‘The SPIRE system gives very substantial advantages in terms of collection and governance of information throughout the National Health Service.
‘It is right and proper that the Government has sought and received guarantees on the data’s security. That is absolutely the right thing to do.’
Meanwhile, Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson said it was ‘bizarre’ that the SNP would not commit to a new programme of business until Mr Salmond’s successor had been appointed – but was still planning to unveil a new budget.
‘The people of Scotland demand that we get back to the real issues,’ she told the chamber. ‘People want to see a Scottish Government working in the interests of all of Scotland. Why should they have to wait two more months for this Government to do its job?’
Mr Salmond attempted to defend his government, saying: ‘We are bringing forward regulations to allow the f i rst ever same- sex marriages in Scotland.
‘We are introducing, from January, free school meals from primaries one to three... we are working with all stakeholders to secure success- ful on-going operations at Ferguson’s shipyards.
‘We will have stage 3 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill, which will streamline civil justice. And, of course, the figures on the economy indicate that the efforts of the Scottish Government in employment and unemployment, particularly with regard to the huge increase in women’s employment, are bearing some fruit.’
However, this failed to impress Miss Davidson, who teased the
First Minister about a petulant letter he wrote to a Scottish newspaper complaining that his biographer, David Torrance, ‘doesn’t know me at all’.
The Tory leader said: ‘There was a spectacular lack of forthcoming legislation in that list. Can it really be that the First Minister does not get it?
‘We have at least two more months of what the papers are describing as a “zombie government”.
‘In the meantime, the First Minister will pick up another £20,000 of taxpayers’ money in salary and will go on his farewell photo op tour before the inevitable happens and his deputy takes over.
‘We know that the First Minister has plenty of time on his hands, as that is what he told us in a green ink letter that he wrote to a national newspaper this week. But we also know that it is not legislation he is working on – it is his book deal.
‘If the First Minister is in office but not in power, what is the point in his hanging around?’