IN Government we’ve kept the NHS true to its founding principles – held in public hands and free at the point of need.

We’ve scrapped prescription charges, which are little more than a tax on the sick.

We’ve increased health funding by £3.3 billion, to record high levels, supporting an increase of over 11,200 NHS staff under the SNP, also at a record high.

Waiting times have improved substantially, with the NHS performing better against tougher targets than when we came to office.

But we want to go further and keep evolving our health and care services so they can meet the needs of our changing population long into the future.

We’ll invest £200 million over the next five years to increase NHS capacity by building five new elective and diagnostic treatment centres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Livingston and Edinburgh, and expanding the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank.

That’s why we’ve committed to not only protecting the health budget, but to increasing it by at least £500m more than inflation by the end of the coming parliament.

Through this we’ll continue to shift the balance of care, by ensuring that in every year that primary, community, social, and mental health care all receive an increasing share of the NHS budget. And we’ll invest £100m in our Cancer Strategy to help better prevent, detect, treat, and care for those burdened with that terrible disease.

We’ll continue care for our NHS so its best able to care for each and every person and family who need them.

IN this election every party is making fairly similar promises about the NHS with everyone offering more money for the health service.

The NHS is Labour’s proudest achievement and with Labour will always be based on patient need, not the ability to pay. Labour will invest more in general practice and social care to take the pressure off of our hospitals guaranteeing an appointment at a GP surgery within 48 hours and a social care package within a week.

Bluntly however, these policies and promises will only make the real difference they should if we tackle the health inequalities that blight Scotland.

In Scotland you are less likely to be diagnosed early but more likely to die young of cancer if you are poor.

Every party wants to make our NHS fit for the future – that will only happen if we tackle the inequality that scars our country. That’s why we need to stop the cuts to public services which the most vulnerable rely on, stop the conveyor belt of austerity and the ills that it brings and offer more than a safety net to our poorest, but a springboard.

Faced with the choice between using the powers of the Scottish Parliament to invest in our economy or carrying on with the cuts Labour will use the powers to stop the cuts.

LIBERAL Democrats have made our priorities for the NHS clear. First, we want a step change in the way we treat mental ill health in Scotland. We will deliver this by doubling support for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, building two new specialist facilities in Aberdeen and Inverness to end the scandal of vulnerable children being forced to wait more than a year for treatment.

We will make sure that every GP practice has a qualified mental health professional available to support and treat patients and introduce full-time mental health cover in A&E departments. This will help ensure that people get the care they need as soon as possible.

Secondly, we will ensure that primary care is supported properly. GPs and practice nurses are on the frontline of our NHS but services are under huge pressure. The Royal College has warned that we face a shortfall of hundreds of doctors by 2020 unless we take urgent action. We have set out plans to triple the Primary Care Fund to ensure that we can protect critical GP services.

We will increase the share of the NHS budget spent in both of these areas and pass on all Barnett consequentials from health spending increases in England to ensure services are properly resourced. We will also remove top-down targets and give NHS staff the freedom they need to provide high-quality care. Doctors, nurses and patients cannot wait on the SNP. We need real action now.

THE Scottish Conservatives are committed to a health service in Scotland in public hands and free at the point of need and delivery.

For our part we will ensure that the NHS receives the funds required, with a "triple lock" guaranteed increase in line with inflation, in line with the "consequentials" arising from higher spending on health at Westminster or by two per cent – whichever of those is the higher. It remains a fact that despite SNP promises, health spending in Scotland has increased since 2010 by barely one per cent while it has increased by some seven per cent in England.

We are committed to a major investment in GPs and will establish a new model for primary care which not only attracts and retains new GPs but offers a more comprehensive service involving allied health professionals and others. We will also encourage far greater partnership working with local pharmacies.

We will invest £300m in mental health, reducing unacceptable waiting times and making mental health the equal of physical health.

To really tackle health inequalities and invest in a preventative health agenda, we will establish a national, GP attached, Health Visiting Service, creating a further 500 new health visitors over and above the previous SNP promise – a total of 1000 new health visitors working with families and children up to the age of seven with particular resource concentrated where health inequalities are most acute.

The Scottish Conservatives will also ensure that exciting new medicines to tackle age old conditions are available to patients in Scotland.

WITH increasingly complex health and care needs, Scotland needs a bolder Holyrood that is willing to invest in the future.

The best measures are those that prevent ill-health. Preventative spending is seen as an add-on by other parties; for Greens it is fundamental. Wellbeing must be at the centre of Government decisions.

A truly healthy life starts before birth, and I’d like to see more community-based projects such as the Pregnancy and Parents Centre in Edinburgh, which supports parents-to-be. Public health interventions, such as free fruit for children, practical food education and free school meals for all primary pupils, should be rolled out.

Physical activity is vital. Public health directors agree with us that spending 10 per cent of the transport budget on walking and cycling would ease congestion and cut air pollution. Air pollution causes more than 2,000 deaths each year, but successive Governments have failed to act.

GPs, NHS workers and social care staff need more support. A living wage plus of £9 an hour for carers will help address recruitment and retention, which in turn will ease delayed discharges in our hospitals. In my home city of Edinburgh 5,000 hours of social care go unmet every week. That has to change.

Our proposals to reform income tax and replace council tax would leave most people better off but would raise additional revenue to invest. A bolder Holyrood with a strong group of Greens would begin the work of future-proofing our health and social care system.

A 2015 SCOTTISH Government paper advises that very clear linkages exist between socio-economic deprivation, poverty, poor health and well-being, raised morbidity levels and lower life expectancy. Health inequalities reflect wider inequalities that stem from the divisions present in our society and as such Rise believe that by tackling inequality in other areas head on, and avoiding a counter-productive focus on short-term targets, we can begin to improve Scotland’s health record.

One area in which not enough is being done is mental health. Rise will push for mental well-being to be viewed with the same importance as physical health. We will call for increased funding for Community Psychiatric nurses and an urgent increase in Child and Adolescent Mental Health spending.

Unpaid care work in Scotland is valued at £10.8bn a year according to Carers UK, Cosla and the Scottish Government. Without our carers it is doubtful that Scotland’s health and social care services could survive. As a society we must recognise the vital work done by carers and offer them proper support. Rise MSPs would bring forward a Living Income for Carers (LIC) Bill. This Bill would ensure, amongst other things, that full-time carers receive an income of £200 per week.

Rise also believes that the decriminalisation of drugs is a vital public health measure. Drug addiction should be seen as a health issue, not a matter for the criminal justice system.

UKIP is committed to keeping the NHS free at the point of delivery for UK citizens.

The increase in the number of people suffering chronic long-term conditions as well as uncontrolled immigration has brought the NHS close to breaking. Combine this with EU directives and political interference and it is not difficult to understand why the NHS is in serious trouble.

TTIP is a proposed EU/USA trade agreement that is being negotiated in secret by EU bureaucrats. There is growing concern that TTIP may compel us to put many of our public services up for sale to US corporations thereby privatising the NHS. Ukip is committed to securing the exclusion of the NHS from TTIP. Fears of what TTIP might contain precisely illustrate why Ukip believes the UK should leave the EU and negotiate our own free trade agreements again.

Ukip will end the over reliance of the Scottish Government on costly PFI and similar financing. It would be far cheaper to borrow the money at Government rates than at commercial rates. Where possible, Ukip will negotiate an early end to these private sector cash cows and return the financing of the health sector to Government where it belongs.

Ukip will bring back the State Enrolled Nurse and fund return to practice training for those who have taken a career break. Ukip will plug the gap between nursing numbers and demand and will have put in place long-term planning and training projects for doctors and nurses by 2018.