Humza Yousaf has pleaded with the UK Government to make more money available to avert a nursing strike which is expected to be held before the end of the year.
The Health Secretary told the Record on Wednesday that no new cash would be put on the table to end the dispute with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union.
The RCN announced that its members in the majority of NHS employers across the UK had backed industrial action. In Scotland nurses were offered a flat rate rise of £2,205, it meant a newly qualified nurse would receive around eight per cent more.
Industrial action is expected to be held before the end of the year at some of the UK's biggest hospitals, including Guy's and St Thomas' opposite Parliament, the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, University Hospital Wales and Belfast's Royal Victoria.
Yousaf is now urging the Tory government in Westminster to cough up after saying, "we don't have any more money".
Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland (GMS) programme, Yousaf said: "The plea of course I'm making is given that the UK Government are the architects of high inflation costs and this cost crisis.
"For me, I think they have a moral obligation, quite frankly, to put their hand in their pocket and provide more money to the Scottish Government. I know the Welsh Government has made a similar plea to in order for us to be able to afford these record high deals."
The unions are protesting over a pay award earlier this year of £1,400 for most NHS workers, with the RCN calling for a rise of five per cent above the rate of inflation.
Opposition parties at Holyrood have urged the SNP government to make cut backs in other areas of the budget in order to end the nursing pay dispute.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris hinted that no new money would be given to the devolved nations to avert the strike.
GMS host Laura Maxwell asked Heaton-Harris: "Could you make more money available to the devolved administration's now to pay nurses more to prevent a nationwide walkout?"
He replied: "I believe you would have been reporting very recently on the state of both the nation's finances and indeed on finances across the globe.
"One third of economies across the globe are now in recession, according to the International Monetary Fund. As we saw only a few weeks ago, if there is no confidence in global financial markets and in a government's programme of spending and its finances then actually lots of worse things kick in.
"It's very important that we spend our money, taxpayers money prudently as we move forward."
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
