A frank debate on funding NHS is vital

If more money is to be spent on health, we need to openly discuss where it will come from

Akey part of the SNP’S shift from perpetual opposition to political dominance was its success in persuading voters that it could be trusted to nurture and protect the National Health Service. The Labour Party may have established the NHS in 1948 but, on the way to its first Holyrood election victory in 2007, the SNP audaciously staked its claim to be the service’s true custodian.

And with policies such as free prescriptions and the abolition of parking charges at hospitals, the Nationalists made a convincing show of having big ideas about how a modern health service should be run.

But 11 years after the SNP took control of the Scottish NHS, there are serious questions about standards in care, about staffing levels, and about waiting times. Critics suggest that, when it comes to the NHS, the Scottish Government has been too managerial when it should have been bold and reforming.

There is, The Scotsman believes, some substance to that charge. But we also recognise that standards in the NHS have been a concern for some time. The SNP is only the latest in a line of parties which has found management of the service to be extremely challenging.

Whether under the past Labourliberal Democrat coalition at Holyrood or the Conservatives at Westminster, the NHS has been ailing for some time.

The 70th anniversary of the service falls on Thursday and we can expect MPS and MSPS from across the parties to pay lavish tributes to those who work in it.

But while there will be unanimity on the debt many owe to doctors, nurses, and support staff, the row over who can be trusted to ensure its survival rages on.

Today, former prime minister Gordon Brown says the NHS would be “in trauma” in a decade were Scotland to become independent. Unsurprisingly, this is “utter nonsense” according to Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.

However, Mr Brown raises issues about funding which cannot be easily dismissed – it is an issue that must be addressed regardless of constitutional settlements.

Governments and opposition parties alike, on both sides of the border, simply cannot continue to promise an improved NHS without someone paying.

If we truly cherish the NHS, then we need to be open to a debate about how we maintain it. Otherwise, Thursday’s anniversary celebrations will be little more than froth.