Members of the Scottish Parliament have voted against the Scottish Executive implementing the Royal ...
Members of the Scottish Parliament have voted against the Scottish Executive implementing the Royal Commission's key recommendation for the State to fund personal and nursing care for the elderly.
The motion was put forward for debate by the Conservative Party with 65 MSPs voting against taking up the Royal Commission's proposal and 55 voting in favour. The Scottish Executive is expected to make a decision and give its official response to the report early in October.
Sir Stewart Sutherland, principal of Edinburgh University and chairman on the Royal Commission, has estimated that this will cost Scotland £110 million. The Commission recommended paying for this with a 0.4% tax rise.
Commenting on Sutherland's Royal Commission Report David McLetchie, Conservative MSP, said: "It recommends a way forward through provision that is based on need, which is free to the client and which is costed into the future. It resolves unfairness and proposes the unification of health and social work budgets for long term care."
But Sandy Johnstone, LTC strategy manager said problems would emerge if Scotland adopted the Royal Commission's recommendations. He said: "This could cause a lot of confusion due to residency rules. I am Scottish and live in England, if I moved back to Scotland would it mean I could get access to better levels of State funding?"
He added: "If the Scottish were to take this route the funding would have to come from the Scottish public's purse and so they could potentially resent English people moving to Scotland without contributing to LTC funding."
However, Ross Ainslie, product actuary at GeneralCologne Re, said that Scotland would be unlikely to adopt the Royal Commission's proposals. "The UK Government has agreed to fund nursing care and it looks like this is what the Scottish Government will do. This will be for the same reasons as the UK - it will be very expensive."
He added: "The Scottish could not possibly offer less than the English and if they offered services in excess of the English it would undoubtedly cause tension."
