NHS consultant: SNP manifesto is “what many wanted Labour to deliver”
by A medical consultant says the SNP manifesto – which puts Scotland’s NHS first – is “what many wanted Labour to deliver.”
It follows previous comments from Dr Dan Goyal, NHS consultant and health policy editor at Bylines Scotland, where the expert said that “I just can’t see the point of voting Labour in Scotland.”
In 2022, he also said that he would choose medical treatment in Scotland over England ‘any day of the week’
The SNP’s manifesto committed SNP MPs to protect Scotland’s NHS from the twin threats of privatisation and austerity.
This plan will see the SNP bring forward a Bill to keep the NHS in public hands and provide a funding boost of £1.6 billion to Scotland’s health service.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour has faced criticism for their plan to enhance the role of the private sector in the NHS with their health spokesperson, Wes Streeting, stating: “We will go further than New Labour ever did. I want the NHS to form partnerships with the private sector that goes beyond just hospitals”.
Labour’s health spokesperson previously admitted he will be “holding the door wide open” to private interests in the NHS, with private healthcare investors stating the Labour Party would “kick-start private sector investment much more proactively than the Tories were able to do.”
Mr Streeting also said he “won’t give in” to doctors’ unions on fair pay and admitted Westminster is damaging Scotland’s NHS, stating “all roads lead back to Westminster” and “decisions that are taken in Westminster don’t just affect England – but Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”
Following Dr Goyal’s remarks, the SNP’s health spokesperson and candidate for Mid Dunbartonshire, Amy Callaghan, said Dr Goyal was absolutely right, and that “Keir Starmer is committed to crippling our health service with cuts while laying out the red carpet for private firms to waltz into our hospitals”.
At this election, the choice for voters in Scotland is clear – SNP MPs who will put our NHS and Scotland’s interests first or Keir Starmer’s Labour inflicting billions of pounds of further cuts to our NHS and opening the floodgates to privatisation.
On the 4th of July, vote SNP to protect our NHS, reject Westminster austerity and deliver a future made in Scotland, for Scotland.