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Re: Will Scotland Leave the UK?
Some interesting points in today's Times (behind paywall).
Quote:
The former chief medical officer has said Alex Salmond is wrong to claim that a “yes” vote in the referendum would boost NHS Scotland.
Sir Kenneth Calman told The Times that the issues had become “confused” — and pointed out that Holyrood already had control over health spending. His intervention came as new figures show that the NHS in Scotland has spent almost £1 billion in three years sending patients for private treatment. The data are acutely embarrassing for the first minister, who has claimed that the private sector had been eradicated from the health service north of the Border....
...The NHS has become a last-minute battleground ahead of September’s referendum, with the first minister stating this week that it was the issue which was “shifting most votes”.
He and his ministers argue that the NHS is being privatised in England and that this will have a knock-on deleterious effect on Scottish spending. However, the NHS budget is not being cut at Westminster and Holyrood already has full control over health — allowing it to rely as much or as little on the private sector as it sees fit.
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Later on in the article, you can almost hear the sound of straws being grasped.
Quote:
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Sir Harry Burns, until recently chief medical officer for Scotland, said last month that independence had the potential to improve Scots’ health. He said: “The question is, would people in an independent country feel more in control of their lives? If they did, then that would be very positive for their health.”
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