It has been a central if highly contentious plank of the Yes campaign that the Scottish NHS is under threat within the UK and would be safer under independence.
Yet it does not reflect very well on the SNP Government's own stewardship of the NHS that a large Scottish health board is so anxious about poor levels of staffing in its A&E departments that it is drawing up contingency plans to suspend full services at any one of them if there are not enough doctors to treat patients.
Dire shortages of staff at NHS Lanarkshire's three A&E departments have prompted the move, which would mean seriously ill patients being diverted away from the affected A&E department for up to 48 hours.
This problem of staff vacancies and increased pressure is not new, nor does it affect just NHS Lanarkshire: medical staff across Scotland have been sounding the klaxon about it for months. It has emerged that serious concerns about safety and quality of care have been raised about Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, including unease about staffing in A&E; an investigation is ongoing. In Glasgow recently, patients were on trolleys for hours due to a shortage of ward beds.
The Scottish Government last year announced a £50 million Emergency Medicine Action Plan but that three-year measure, though welcome, was never going to be enough.
Whatever happens next Thursday, this smouldering crisis must be tackled. While politicians stoke up fears of future threats to the NHS, the service is facing serious problems right here and now. There is no simple answer to recruitment problems, but the shortages cannot be allowed to continue. As The Herald has highlighted repeatedly in our NHS: Time for Action campaign, the NHS is facing unprecedented pressure from an ageing population. Patient safety should be paramount, and how can that be guaranteed if hospitals do not have enough doctors?
Fears of such a situation arising were a factor in leading NHS Lanarkshire seven years ago to argue for Monklands A&E to be downgraded. At the time, the health board was struggling with the highest level of consultant vacancies in the country. By focusing on two A&E departments instead of three, the argument went, it would be possible to provide more reliable A&E services.
The health board failed to make its case effectively and local people were understandably left feeling that the plans were designed for medical staff rather than them. The campaigners were supported by the SNP, who decreed after winning the 2007 Holyrood election that all three departments should remain open.
Today, there are consultant vacancies in emergency medicine in all three hospitals. NHS Lanarkshire says it is being out-competed for staff by health boards that offer larger teams with more opportunities for training and research and a better work-life balance.
The Scottish Government must address these issues if it wants to convince doubters it should be entrusted with the future of the NHS.
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