Scottish patients benefit from twice the number of nurses per person as those in England - despite paying far less tax, (according to the mail!) The massive subsidy they (ALLEGEDLY) receive from taxpayers south of the border also enables NHS Trusts there to employ nearly 50 per cent more doctors and dentists, according to a new report.
The disparity is a legacy of the controversial 30-year-old Barnett Formula, which sees Scotland get more public spending than other parts of the UK because it has greater levels of deprivation. It is said to have created 'medical apartheid'.
The Nuffield Trust charity found that about £1,800 per head is spent on health in Scotland, but in England it is just £1,500. (i.e. 20% MORE)
This allows Scotland to have more than 80 per cent more nurses, midwives and health visitors, with 11 per 1,000 people compared to just six in England.
It also has 2.5 doctors and dentists per 1,000 people - 47 percent higher than the 1.7 England can manage. This includes both hospital doctors and GPs.
This report is the biggest load of SHITE that I have read for a while. HOW, going by the Mail's figures can spending be 20% higher per head in Scotland and yet we have 80% more health professionals? (WE MUST HAVE A VERY EFFICIENT NHS IN SCOTLAND!)
Point 1. Scotland has 40% of the land mass of the UK and 8% of the population. Therefore HEALTH facilities have to be spread thinner. For instance if the average GP in England has say 5,000 patients because of the sparser population and bigger area covered in Scotland that figure would be nearer 3,000. So therefore on a like for like basis the costs are higher.
Point 2. Health is devolved in Scotland along with some other matters. Scotland is given a BLOCK-GRANT (sometimes called pocket-money) from the UK treasury. The SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT then has to devise a budget which it can be passed in the SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT with the agreement of some of the other partties because it is a minority Government. If the Government decides to spend more on HEALTH because that is important to them and less on something else for instance Transport or the Police, THAT IS THE PEROGATIVE OF THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT. So if your health is important to you, MOVE TO SCOTLAND. You'll be made very welcome.
10 comments:
The lassie in the picture could give me a bed bath any time she likes.
Aye DL, the point I was making in your Scottish boozers article is that the amount of tax the Government takes is not limited to the 50% of the price of an average bottle of wine (72% on a bottle of spirits), but there is also the fuel duty as well. Fuel duty is 80% of pump prices.
As you point out, you Jimmies are well spread out and in the Frozen North you have to drive miles to Sommerfields in Thurso to pick up the Irn Bru and Mars Bars or to see the doc.
Not only is it your oil in the first place, but we are taxing you on the large amounts you are forced to burn when you drive to the shops or the hospital.
We even build the roads to encourage you to drive more and remember; every time you fill up the Bentley you are paying some English bastards Dole money.
It’s brilliant.
(PS I’m very sad to hear that Bill Maclaren has passed away – “i’m no hod carrier but i’d be laying bricks if he was running at me” – tremendous! Like Brian Johnson his voice will be greatly missed, he was a true icon of both Scotland and rugby.)
Stouters, it is indeed a pleasure to have someone like you commenting on this blog with such an incisive mind that can appreciate a valid arguement. When you're building us these roads can you build us a motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It's ridiculous that our two major cities are connected by a glorified dual carriageway.
Aye, Bill MacLaren was one of the greats. He should have been knighted. He could teach present day commentators a thing or two about being neutral when you are commenting on your nation's game.
The grant to the Scottish Government hasn't changed since the SNP came to power ( in fact it's earmarked for a reduction of £450m due to Broons incompetence with the economy) It's just that the SNP have changed their priorities in where the funding goes to.
It's an obvious fact that seems to go straight over the heads of the opposition and the right wing tabloids.
I mean if the SNP wanted to ( and could get it through parliament ) they could send everyone a bottle of the finest malt on their 18th birthday.
Boabs, that's the point exactly that I was trying to make. If they spend more on health then they have to cut back on something else. As you say though the English don't get it, they only see us with a better health service than they have.
Tut tut gentleman, an election is in the offing don't forget. Anything to degrade Scotland will be published. There will be lots more to come we all know that.
As for this 'survey' it's done in England and is not independent. Sounds good though Nuffield Trust doesn't it.
I just hope the Scottish government don't insist on doing one to contradict - we need our money for front line services.
this report was comprehensively destroyed on radio Scotland lunchtime news by a lady from Edinburgh University sorry forgotten her name she is an expert on this subject whether radio Scotland has this on a web site I have no idea, she destroyed the report to such an extent I doubt if radio Scotland would want anyone to hear it again
apologies, re nuttfeild trust report. radio Scotland today
20 1 10 at lunchtime
Rosie, I see the Scottish Government are saying it's 4 years out of date and things have improved. Mind you I go to Hospitals quite often for various things and there is a huge waste of resources. Some of those clinics have double the nurses they need. Half of them are always away on a tea break. If a clinic starts at 2 and finishes at 4.30, why do they need a tea break. They're not run off their feet.
Anonymous, the BBC don't like to have reports that contradict Labour in favour of the SNP. It will be well buried, I've no doubt but I'll have a shufi.
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