With less than two weeks left before voters head to the poll to elect the next UK Government, one of the biggest political footballs up for debate is - as ever - the future of the NHS. All sides are promising to rescue the health service but the question of "how" tends to be answered by a mixture of vague reforms ("cut bureaucracy"), red herrings, or a sliding scale of increased spending. The SNP is pushing for an extra £16 billion a year to be spent on health in England - equivalent to an extra £1.
6bn for Scotland - while Reform has pledged an extra £17bn annually, and the Green party an extra £28bn a year by 2030, compared to promises of an extra £1bn by the Conservatives, £2bn by Labour, and nearly £6bn per year by the LibDems. READ MORE: NHS in crisis: Is the health service as we know it over? Number of private GP clinics in Scotland triple since pandemic How do Scotland's cancer services compare to the rest of the UK? Health policy and the running of the NHS is devolved, of course, so whoever wins the keys to Number 10 on July 4 will be responsible for what happens in NHS England. Nonetheless, the new UK Government's decisions on health and social care spending will influence the sums available to spend on public services north of the border, and UK-wide policies - such as welfare benefits - have implications for people living with long-term health conditions and disabilities.
It is also true that the UK shares many of the same problems when it comes to health and.
