A letter, supported by 95% of Doctors in England, signed off by a leader of the BMA has this week been sent to Mr Cameron warning that the sick, frail and elderly are being failed by Westminster. The rarely used somewhat politically incorrect intervention by the medical profession advises an urgent need for a major change in direction transferring control of Health and Social Welfare away from private healthcare back to the control of the Nation. A summary of the letter;

The crisis in health and welfare support services is directly attributable to Westminster’s, (Health & Social Services Act) embracing and implementing a programme of rapid ill conceived transfers of services to the private sector. It is estimated in excess of £11Billion and 35,000 staff, (from frontline services) has been given over to private healthcare which has not delivered. This systematic break-up of the National Health Service and welfare support, (under-funded by around £30 Billion) is becoming dangerously fragmented. Rationing of and removal of some treatments is being ordered by non-medical managers all to the detriment of patient care. Very soon changes will be, “bedded in” and virtually impossible to reverse effectively providing citizens with very limited healthcare and Welfare support.

Clearly, where applicable the foregoing applies to the Health Service in England, but Welfare Support is only partially devolved to Scotland and, (at the time of writing) our citizens are suffering the brunt of changes in these systems, (controlled by Ian Duncan Smith).

In the event of a, “no” vote in the Referendum coupled with the, (increasingly likely) return of a Conservative Government in 2015, there is every probability that changes in the National Health Service in England will be transferred, (for early implementation) to Scotland. This will be achieved through a major reduction in the Scottish, “Block Grant” significantly lowering Healthcare finance availability forcing the Scottish Government to adopt the same Healthcare profile as that available in England.

A, “Yes” vote in the Referendum will allow Scotland’s citizens to decide their own future in terms of Healthcare and Social Welfare support. I am confident we will turn away from the disastrous systems envisaged by Westminster.