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Comment by badcppdev | Hacker News Reader

My 2 penny opinion on this debate is people should always refer to the UK government rather than the "NHS". The NHS is just a government department run by the health minister. Saying the NHS is in trouble means you're not pointing your finger at the people responsible. (Your opinion on this is very welcome)

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It’s also a proxy to let Conservative voters, who have kept this government in power for a decade, off the hook. This didn’t happen by accident.

IMO voters should be able to hold each other for their choices.

That's only the case for the NHS in England.

Are you talking about how NHS Scotland is run by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing based out of Holyrood? Please tell me you're not. It's not really very relevant to the discussion.

My point was that it's the government running the health service. Name and shame the person responsible.

I wasn't particularly thinking of Scotland, but since you mention it:

"The NHS in Scotland is totally devolved to the Scottish Parliament and all policy and spending decisions are made in Scotland."

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/facts-about-nhs-funding-i...

The funding is given to them by the uk gov. They are allowed to elect how they spend it. If the funding is insufficient then it’s not really fixing the problem.

They have tax raising powers to fund it however they so wish.

Is that true? I thought they could only devote devolved public expenditure to the nhs.

Even if they could raise income tax (3p i think?) to fund extra in the nhs that’s a drastically unlikely scenario.

Ultimately i think the nhs is Scotland is likely to be as underfunded as the nhs in England.

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