The SNP has unveiled a series of major pledges on the NHS and social care as the party launches its manifesto.

In the second of an election series – following on from the Scottish Greens yesterday – healthandcare.scot takes a look at the some of the pledges made by the government party fighting for a fourth term.

Health service funding

The headline-grabbing announcement on health and care is undoubtedly the pledge to increase NHS funding by 20% – working out as a £2.5bn increase over the next Parliament. Split over five years, this would be an extra £500m a year – up from increases of around £350m in recent years but not far above the 2016/17 funding increase of £479m (figures sourced from ISD Scotland).

Also pledged is a review of the funding formula for health boards to ensure the additional resource is distributed “equitably”, a move reported on by healthandcare.scot when it was signalled by the departing Health Secretary Jeane Freeman earlier this year.

In some ways the 20% pledge is the follow-up to a commitment made last week to boost NHS activity by 10% in a bid to catch-up with waiting lists – a promise described by the BMA as “unrealistic” because staff are exhausted.

This is to be done by maximising existing theatre and hospital capacity, as well as the use of mobile facilities while more permanent expansions are under construction. 

Capital projects

The manifesto pledges a series of capital project commitments, though most new buildings will be delivered ‘in the second half of the decade’. On the list is the upgrading of primary and community hospitals, refurbishment of Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital, Caithness General Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, the Vale of Leven Hospital in Alexandria, the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick, and Borders General in Melrose.

Two new elective care centres at Cumbernauld and Ayrshire have been added to the existing programme at a cost of £100m, while replacements are promised for the east of Scotland regional cancer centre at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion, and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Institute of Neurosciences.

All of this, the SNP says, is contingent on decisions taken in London. “The UK Government has repeatedly cut our capital budget in recent years and this aim is therefore subject to Scotland not facing further raids on this budget by Westminster,” the document says.

A fast-track cancer diagnostic centre is promised for every health board – up from the three for all of Scotland promised in December’s cancer recovery plan. The end of May is the deadline for the first three of the centres – Ayrshire & Arran, Fife and Dumfries and Galloway – to be up and running.

A surprise commitment is the creation of an ‘NHS National Pharmaceutical Agency’. The SNP says this will have a mission to secure medicines ‘at the most cost-effective price possible’, including by establishing NHS manufacturing of generic medicines and ‘specials’.

Ending dental charges

The party outlines plans to end charges for dental care, which it says is the last remaining area of care that people are routinely charged for. The British Dental Association has backed the move – which would cost around £75m – but said the costs of abolishing fees would need to be met in full by government.

Digital reforms

Following the success of NearMe during the pandemic, if re-elected the SNP says it will develop a new NHS app that helps people access services and ‘own their own health information’. Paper prescriptions will be ditched under the party’s plans, with prescriptions being sent to local pharmacies electronically.

Staffing and pay

As well as repeating the 4% pay rise offer announced just before pre-election rules kicked in, the SNP says it will add at least 1,500 staff to the NHS roster by 2025 through ‘accelerated recruitment’ to support improved elective and specialist capacity. Another 100 places will be added to medical schools’ yearly intake and a student paramedic bursary will be introduced.

NHS board shake-up on the cards

One potentially significant change to NHS Scotland is included in the party’s plans on social care. A future SNP government would ‘review the number, structure and regulation of health boards…to remove unwarranted duplication of functions and make best use of the public purse.’

National Care Service

More details on the timelines for setting up a National Care Service are provided, which the SNP says will be ‘fully functioning’ by 2026. The party is undertaking to bring in a ‘national wage for care staff’ and introduce national pay bargaining for the sector, and it reiterates promises around abolishing non-residential care charges. All of this would be funded with an additional £800m for social care over the next five years.

Mental health

By the end of the next Parliament in 2026 the SNP promises to increase mental health spending to 10% of the frontline NHS budget. Meanwhile spending on CAMHS would rise to 1%, up from just 0.5%. There is also a promise for every GP practice to get a dedicated wellbeing link worker – around 1,000 staff. The SNP is promising to take forward the recommendations of a review into forensic mental health services and a forthcoming review of mental health law and compulsory detention.

The manifesto includes an undertaking to bring in a dedicated learning disability, autism and neurodiversity bill that will ‘delineate’ support and services from existing mental health legislation. A new commissioner will oversee the implementation of the law.

Palliative care

A new National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care is being promised by the SNP. They would have responsibility for overseeing a national end of life and palliative care strategy. The party is also committing to at least £7m every year for children’s hospices, though no figure is given for adult services.

Drug deaths

The party says that it will move to a five-year funding cycle for third sector and grassroots organisations working to tackle drug deaths. Also promised is the implementation of new Medication Assisted Treatment Standards (MAT) in the first year of the Parliament, to allow same day treatment or prescribing.

Women’s health

Included in the party’s list of election pledges is an undertaking to introduce a miscarriage service, as well as three days of paid miscarriage or stillbirth leave for public sector workers. The power to introduce this for all workers is currently held by Westminster.

There are also pledges to bring down endometriosis diagnosis waiting times to less than a year and to ask the National Screening Committee to consider whether current age thresholds should be lowered. Legislation to reimburse mesh patients who have paid for private treatment in the UK or abroad is also re-announced.

Specialist care

More funding for cancer services and care is promised, alongside a pledge to examine whether additional targets for different types of cancer treatments could be useful.

A ‘right to rehab’ that has been called for by campaigners is part of the manifesto, as well as a series of commitments to improve audiology services in the community and bring in a national low vision plan.

There is also a pledge to eliminate HIV transmission by 2030, introduce at home STI testing and three years of crisis intervention funding for gender identity services.

 

Read more: Manifesto health check: the Scottish Greens; ‘No justification’ for delay on care charge pledge; Scotland-England social care spending gap widening

 

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