John Swinney: Budget will prioritise NHS Scotland

First Minister John Swinney has vowed to make health service improvements a "top priority" in this week's budget.

However, rival parties have issued separate statements condemning the SNP government's record on the NHS and other public services.

The budget will be unveiled on Wednesday and the minority SNP government has been in talks with other parties in a bid to strike a deal that will ensure its budget is voted through by MSPs.

Ministers need support from across the aisles to prevent the budget from being rejected  by parliament. Failure to secure this could trigger an early election.

It is thought that this support could come from either the Scottish Liberal Democrats or Scottish Greens, who until spring this year were junior partners in government. 

Today Scottish Labour has urged the SNP leadership to "own its decisions", slating the government's record on the NHS and other public services.

And the Scottish Conservatives have accused ministers of pushing nurses "beyond breaking point" as a trade union calls for "urgent action" to increase the workforce.

The Royal College of Nursing Scotland highlighted more than 2000 registered nurse vacancies in NHS Scotland and said care homes are "struggling to recruit the registered nurses they need". Its director Colin Poolman said it is "deeply worrying" that "the number of nurses available to work in Scotland has stagnated at a time when the pressures on our health and social care system continue to increase".

Sandesh Gulhane, health spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: "These damning figures prove that the SNP’s dire workforce planning and failure to support nurses is driving many away from working in Scotland.

"Nurses have been pushed beyond breaking point because successive SNP health secretaries have failed to invest in frontline care. This is leaving our NHS and social care services dangerously understaffed and it is suffering patients who are paying the price for the SNP’s inaction."

However, Swinney said: "Scotland has had the best-performing core Accident & Emergency Units in the UK for nine years, we have more GPs per head than anywhere else in the UK and we have prevented the disruption of strike action by settling fair pay deals for frontline NHS workers.

“But we know that health services everywhere face huge pressure in light of the Covid-19 pandemic – and ours is no exception.

“When I became first minister, I made clear that one of my top priorities was improving public services like the NHS. Since then, I have thrown the weight of the Scottish Government behind tackling some of the key challenges it faces – whether that is increasing capacity in hospitals or making it easier for people to see a GP.

“Our budget this week will be a budget which has improving the NHS at its heart. We have listened carefully to suggestions from patients and staff – as well as engaging constructively with organisations and political parties across the parliament. 

“I want to make progress on improving our NHS, but to do that, parliament must approve our Budget Bill in order to unlock investment which will drive the long-term and lasting improvements – and the healthier population - that we all want to see.”

The Scottish statement follows the first budget by the new Labour UK Government, which included the largest funding settlement of the devolution era.

As well as a focus on the NHS, the Scottish budget, to be delivered by finance secretary Shona Robison, is expected to include an end to the council tax freeze.

Michael Marra, Scottish Labour's finance spokesman, said: "For 14 years, the Tories have provided cover for the SNP’s financial failures and reckless waste – but that ends here. Now that Labour has turned the page on Tory austerity and delivered record levels of funding for Scotland, the SNP has to stop the blame game and own its decisions.

"Right now almost one in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list, exam results are declining, our justice system is at breaking point and countless Scots are suffering as a result of the housing emergency.

"The SNP is out of excuses – they have a budget of nearly £60bn at their disposal. The whole of that budget must deliver for the people of Scotland and address the challenges our country faces."