Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2016
That money has been passed on, but would the member want the Scottish Government to follow the example of the Conservative Government in England, which has led to striking doctors, low morale, an accident and emergency crisis and chronic levels of underfunding?
The UK Government has reduced Scotland’s fiscal departmental expenditure limit budget by 10.6 per cent in real terms between 2010-11 and 2019-20.
The rising cost of drugs is another major pressure. In 2014-15, the NHS spent £150 million more on drugs than in the year before, even after adjusting for inflation, which is an increase of more than 10 per cent in one year.
NHS boards in Scotland have successfully increased the prescribing of unbranded rather than branded medicines to generate efficiencies and Scotland now has one of the highest generic prescribing rates in the world. However, there is a trend for even unbranded drugs to be subject to massive price hikes. Prescriptions of one drug for irritable bowel syndrome fell by a third when the overall cost to the NHS rose by 300 per cent because of a 500 per cent price increase. Westminster is taking action on the issue and a bill that seeks to limit unbranded drug price rises is expected to be passed next year, which will be a welcome development.
No one wants their loved ones to miss out on new and potentially life-saving drugs, so the Scottish Government has provided more money through the new medicines fund, which has gone up from £21.5 million in 2015 to £85 million in 2016. We must do more with less while striving hard to provide high levels of service to patients. The Scottish Government places a high priority on resourcing the NHS and on developing it to tackle head-on the issues that our society is facing.
16:50