Nicola Sturgeon has dismissed a leaked doc discussing turning NHS Scotland right into a two-tier system the place the rich pay for care.
Minutes from a gathering of senior well being officers in September, seen by the BBC, claimed the chief govt of NHS Scotland, Caroline Lamb, had given the “green light” for the thought to be talked about because the service faces an ongoing disaster.
One suggestion within the minutes was to “design in a two-tier system where the people who can afford to, go private”.
But the nation’s first minister stated she was “emphatically” towards the thought.
Ms Sturgeon added: “The founding ideas of the National Health Service aren’t up for dialogue.
“It’s democratically elected governments who decide the policy basis of the National Health Service.”
Asked if she or her ministers knew the discussions had been going down, she stated: “I don’t dictate to NHS chief executives what they can and can’t discuss – we live in a democracy.”
Other options within the minutes included setting a goal to discharge sufferers inside 23 hours, a evaluate of long-term drug prescriptions and making use of a cost for freedom of knowledge requests, with officers claiming there was a £1bn fiscal black gap to fill.
But Ms Sturgeon claimed NHS Scotland was outperforming different areas of the UK and had her full assist.
“Let me be unequivocally clear, we will do that within those long established, well accepted and, I think, almost universally supported principles of a public service free at the point of use and need,” she stated.
Source: information.sky.com”