EMMA RODDICK MSP: INDEPENDENCE IS ESSENTIAL TO PROTECT SCOTLAND’S HEALTH SERVICE

Local MSP Emma Roddick has welcomed plans to protect the right to healthcare access, available at the point of need, by including the NHS in an independent Scotland’s written constitution.

The plans to create a constitution that provides recognition of the NHS in Scotland were included in the fourth Building A New Scotland paper from the Scottish Government, which outlines the opportunities of Scottish independence.

Welcoming the new paper, Ms Roddick expressed that enshrining the NHS in a written constitution would protect Scotland’s health service and ensure it remains publicly owned and publicly operated, with its services publicly commissioned.

She said:

“Our NHS is Scotland’s most loved public service so it is only right that such a valuable asset be included in the constitution of an independent Scotland, so that it can be protected for generations to come.

“With the Tories overseeing the creeping privatisation of the NHS in England and attacking the powers of the Scottish Parliament, we need independence to guarantee a system of healthcare free at the point of need.

“While Labour looks the other way as the Tories systematically undermine the Scottish Parliament, the people of Scotland have never needed protection from Westminster more.  With independence, we will have a constitution to protect the NHS and people’s basic rights.

ENDS

Notes:

•            Building a New Scotland: Creating a modern constitution for an independent Scotland – https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-new-scotland-creating-modern-constitution-independent-scotland-summary/

•            Building A New Scotland series – https://www.gov.scot/newscotlandt