PA MediaThe SNP are set to launch their manifesto with a focus on plans for “major investment” in the NHS.
Health care is a devolved matter in Scotland, meaning the Scottish government runs its own NHS.
However, the overall budget was decided by the UK government and the SNP previously blamed this for the restrictions on NHS Scotland.
At the manifesto launch in Stornoway on Wednesday morning, First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney will call for “an end to Westminster cuts” and call for the next UK government to increase NHS spending by a minimum of an extra £10bn a year.
They will say this will give a £1.6bn annual funding boost to health services in Scotland.
The party’s manifesto will also include plans for investment in other public services, a reversal of the “devastating failure of Brexit” and support for families during the cost of living crisis.
As nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists take industrial action in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the Scottish government has struck a £575m deal with unions that will see staff pay more than in any other part of the UK.
The SNP will call on the incoming UK government to invest at least another £6bn in the NHS to match Scotland’s latest pay offer for health staff.
The manifesto says the extra investment will deliver around £600m as a result of the impact Scotland can have on the numbers, pay and conditions of NHS staff.
This will result in a total of £16bn of additional investment for the NHS – with £1.6bn going to the health service in Scotland, the SNP said.
Mr Swinney is expected to say that if Labor takes power then they will continue with the “cutting agenda”.
Scottish Labor published its manifesto on Tuesday and pledged to cut NHS waiting times and fund 160,000 extra appointments a year in Scotland.
The Scottish Government makes decisions about its own health care system and decides how money is allocated to the NHS in Scotland.
However, most of the Scottish government’s money is in the form of UK Treasury block grants, which generate tax revenue from the UK.
The amount of money sent north to Edinburgh has been calculated using what is known as Barnett’s formula.
While the UK government decides to spend more or less in the UK on things it gives to Scotland as well as Wales and Northern Ireland, such as health care and education, the Barnett formula provides a fixed proportion for the other three countries.
There are frequent disputes about the amount of money available to the Scottish government, the result of decisions made in Westminster for England.
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Mr Swinney claimed the SNP was the only major party to publish a centre-left manifesto.
Ahead of the launch, the first minister said: “Fourteen years of Westminster cuts have had a devastating impact on funding for public services – and Labor is committed to continuing the same cutting agenda as the Tories.
“The SNP manifesto will set out a different approach in line with Scotland’s centre-left values ​​- with an end to Westminster cuts and major new investment in our health service.”
He praised NHS staff as “heroes” during the pandemic, but said the UK’s Conservative government had treated it with “complete contempt”, with junior doctors vote to strike over pay in the lead up to the election.
The first minister compared the situation payment dispute in Scotland last year, where the Scottish government managed to do the same by “negotiations in good faith” to secure a pay deal for junior doctors and nurses.
“Instead of being comfortable going into the private sector, Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting would be better served by NHS staff and given the same pay rise,” he said.
“Labour should explain why they think experienced nurses in Liverpool should be paid £3,000 a year less than nurses in Livingston are paid.
“The Westminster consensus between Labor and the Tories represents a clear and present danger to the future of the NHS.”
Scottish Labor deputy leader Jackie Baillie responded by claiming the SNP had “sold the future of our country with years of chaos and cuts”.
He added: “On the SNP’s watch, the future of our NHS is under threat with lives being lost in A&E chaos and nearly one in six Scots stuck on NHS waiting lists.
“The SNP has no vision and no credibility.”
