Sturgeon in the firing line over hospitals hit by funding crisis
NICOLA Sturgeon was last night accused of short-changing Scotland’s hospitals as the NHS battles its worst crisis in a generation.
According to official figures, the health budget controlled by the SNP increased at a dramatically slower rate than it did under the Tories in England last year, or even under the widely-criticised Labour administration in Wales.
The 0.8 per cent growth north of the Border in 201 -15 compares to .1 per cent in England and .6 per cent in Wales.
The revelation has triggered calls for an urgent explanation from the First Minister, and is now set to dominate the Holyrood election campaign. In a scathing attack, Labour accused the SNP of ‘squeezing health spending harder than the Tories’.
The figures come at a time of widespread scandal in the NHS, including the death of a patient on a trolley at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the collapse of the NHS 2 IT system, and plans to refuse treatment to thousands of A&E patients because they are not ill enough.
Labour public services spokesman Richard Simpson said: ‘This is the reality of decisions made by the SNP Government in Edinburgh about our NHS. They are guilty of squeezing health spending in Scotland harder than even the Tories in England.
‘Nicola Sturgeon says we should judge her on her record – the consequences of SNP decisions are now evident in the stress which staff in the NHS are experiencing.’
Tory health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said the budget figures ‘put to bed any notion that the SNP is the party of the NHS’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Under this Government, frontline NHS funding is up by almost £3billion, and now stands at a record high level of above £12billion.
‘Health spending in Scotland is markedly higher per head than in England.’