THERE is “no indication” that the UK Government will provide additional funding to Scotland in order to avert NHS strikes, according to the First Minister.
Nicola Sturgeon met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday evening and described talks as “perfectly constructive and cordial”.
However, she said that there was no sign that the UK Government was willing to allocate more money to Scotland to prevent NHS workers from taking industrial action over pay.
Speaking to the BBC she said: “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, we talked a bit about the NHS and the pressures people are living under right now.
“[There was] 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.”
Sunak said that the UK Government’s autumn statement had shown that more funding for Scotland was on the way but refused to outline whether specific funding was scheduled to avoid strikes from healthcare workers.
It had been suggested that ministers were looking at a “one off” payment to healthcare professionals in an attempt to avert more strikes.
Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland went on strike for two days in December with more action planned for the coming weeks.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland are preparing for strike action after talks between the union and the Scottish Government failed to result in an agreement over pay.
He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: “What everyone needs to know first of all is that there is record funding already going into the NHS, most recently in the autumn statement in spite of the difficult but fair decisions we had to make to get a grip on borrowing and tackling inflation.
“And more is coming, 1.5 billion pounds 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 and that’s their right.”
