5 ideas from political parties, including the SNP, Labour and Reform, to save Scotland's NHS

Labour has convinced more than a third of Scots it would handle the nation’s NHS crisis better than other parties – more than in England or Wales – new polling has revealed.

Polling carried out by YouGov, on behalf of private healthcare information website myTribe, show that out of the parties in contention to form a Westminster government, Labour is miles ahead when it comes to being trusted with Scotland’s NHS.

Thirty-five per cent of those polled said Labour “would handle the NHS better”, while 23 per cent said none of the Westminster parties could be trusted with NHS Scotland.

A YouGov poll has shown that thirty-five per cent of Scots believe Labour “would handle the NHS better” than other parties, while 23 per cent said none of the Westminster parties could be trusted with NHS Scotland.

In distant second was the Green Party, with nine per cent, followed by Reform, the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives, with five per cent, three per cent, and another three per cent, respectively. Four per cent of those polled said ‘other’, while 18 per cent said they did not know.

As Scotland-only parties, the SNP and Alba were not given as an answer, meaning potential supporters of either party will likely have answered ‘neither’ or ‘other’ - which polled 23 per cent and four per cent, respectively.

Although health is devolved to the Scottish Government, the ruling party in Westminster will effectively hold the purse strings for NHS Scotland - so what are parties promising for Scotland’s NHS in the coming general election?

Labour’s funding boost

The UK Labour Party has promised to cut ‘non dom’ tax loopholes, in order to pay for hundreds of thousands of extra hospital appointments - Scottish Labour says this will provide 160,000 more appointments every year for patients in Scotland.

Scottish Labour’s manifesto says it will provide these appointments “by operating additional clinics and theatre procedures in the evenings and weekends”, but as NHS Scotland is currently in a recruitment and retention crisis - with staff leaving and few being hired to replace them - it may struggle to find the staff to complete these appointments.

SNP’s drug deaths

Although mathematically unable to form a majority at Westminster, and pull on the UK’s purse strings, the SNP does control the Scottish Parliament.

However, the general election manifesto is remarkably light on NHS policies, perhaps due to the SNP already being responsible for NHS Scotland.

One thing the SNP’s general election manifesto promises on health is to “take a public health approach to tackle the drug deaths crisis”.

Scotland’s drug deaths increased steadily between 1996 to 2007 (when the SNP took power), nearly doubling from 244 to 455, before sky-rocketing to 1,339 deaths in 2020. There has been improvement recently, with the number of annual drug deaths reducing to 1,051 in 2022.

The SNP manifesto says the party would lobby Westminster to devolve more power to Holyrood, “so we can go further to reduce harm and improve lives in Scotland”.

The nationalists would also decriminalise drugs for personal use and introduce a framework to allow Supervised Drug Consumption Facilities.

Conservative culture war

The Scottish Conservatives are due to launch their manifesto early next week, but the UK Conservative Party’s manifesto has already promised a £3.4bn investment in new technology, which will have Barnett Consequentials for Scotland, while going big on gender issues.

“We will amend the NHS Constitution so that it recognises every patient’s right to request single-sex accommodation and same-sex intimate care,” the manifesto reads.

“We will not allow the word ‘woman’ to be erased by health services. Words such as ‘breastfeeding’ and ‘mother’ will not be replaced by ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘birthing parent’.”

The most recent polling on the issue, by YouGov in July 2022, shows that “despite Westminster’s fixation with such issues – alongside sections of the media and twitter – the public themselves are far less invested”.

Two thirds of Britons said they pay little attention (42 per cent) or no attention (24 per cent) to the debate in the media and politics about trans rights, while one in three said they pay more attention than this, including eight per cent who said they pay “a lot” of attention.

Lib Dem mental health crusade

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have vowed to tackle the nation’s mental health crisis, and have laid the blame squarely at the feet of social media sites such Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, to name a few.

The Lib Dems say they would “establish the world class mental health services Scotland needs”, funded by taxing “the social media giants who cause so much of the problem”.

The party says it would use the money to increase access to clinically effective talking therapies, and boost the number of training places for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, “especially those specialising in CAMHS”.

Reform’s promises

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has promised a lot – knowing it is unlikely to gain the power needed to implement its policies.

In the party’s ‘contract’ with voters, which contains its policy pledges, Reform says that in the first 100 days of a Reform government it would remove the need for all frontline NHS and social care staff to pay zero basic rate tax for three years.

Reform says this will help retain existing staff and “attract many who have left to return”.

The party would provide a tax relief of 20 per cent for all private healthcare and insurance, to ‘relieve pressure’ on the NHS. “Independent healthcare capacity will grow rapidly, providing competition and reducing costs,” the party’s manifesto reads.

The party’s costing document says its NHS pledges will cost £17bn a year - which would lead to considerable Barnett Consequentials for Scotland.