1 year ago
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Scotland’s first minister discussed NHS funding with the PM on Thursday night in Holyrood
The health secretary, Steve Barclay, has privately conceded he will have to increase his pay offer to NHS staff, in a U-turn that may help to end the growing wave of strikes.
However, the Treasury has made clear he will have to find any new cash from within the existing health budget, raising the prospect of cuts to key services.
No indication from the prime minister of new money, but hopefully we will see strong investment in the NHS. The Scottish government continues to work hard to avert strike action in the NHS.
Clearly Rishi Sunak and I disagree on lots, but we were able to talk about some of the areas where the Scottish and UK governments can work together.
Obviously the NHS is something that the first minister and I discussed extensively last night because there are challenges that the NHS faces as a result of recovering from Covid in every part of the United Kingdom.
£1.5bn over the next couple of years coming to Scotland as a result of the decisions made in the autumn statement. Obviously, that will be up to the Scottish Government to decide how to allocate that money.
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