Thursday, March 11, 2010

Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon announces increase in NHS spending in Scotland targeting frontline services to generate maximum benefit for the people
















Dear All

One of the top priorities of any Government is the provision of health.

The health service is the flagship of the SNP administration and rightly so, targets have been met, conditions improved and problems addressed.

As a sign of how much the SNP Government values the service, funding for the NHS will rise to a record £8.4 billion.

This amounts to a 2.7 % increase for 2010-11 and the money is to be targeted to "prioritise" spending on frontline services.

Each health board in Scotland will receive a minimum increase of 2.5% but in other areas boards, including Lanarkshire, Grampian and Lothian, with specific local problems will get more to address those issues.

The Scottish Ambulance Service which as put up a credible service record in their response to call out times in is line for a 2.15% increase as well.

The advice service NHS 24, also gets a similar increase in recognition of their work.

SNP Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon said;

"This above-inflation increase in revenue funding to NHS boards across Scotland in these difficult economic times underlines the Scottish Government's unshakeable commitment to our publicly-funded mutual health service. It means health boards will have the resources they need to progress their plans and ensure that patients continue to be put at the heart of the NHS."

In areas such as Glasgow there is going to be a flagship health village at the site of the Southern General Hospital costing £842 million serving 110,000 people a year in Glasgow and the surrounding areas.

The announcement by the Scottish Government comes a month after MSPs agreed the £30 billion Scottish Budget for forthcoming year.

For the Labour Party and their health spokesman Jackie Baillie, it is back to reading the papers, drinking tea and eating biscuits.

Health in Scotland is the Scottish Labour Party’s elephant’s graveyard.

The SNP Scottish Government is successful because it works in partnership with the health service, the opposite of the Labour administration whose rule was noted by diktat from above.

This explains why the health service was functioning badly.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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