NICOLA Sturgeon has warned a vote to leave the EU would put Scotland's NHS at risk, as a furious row erupted over the future of the health service.

The First Minister used a speech at the Royal College of Nursing's annual congress in Glasgow to warn a Leave vote on Thursday could have "profound consequences" for Scotland's NHS.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon brands Leave campaign NHS claims 'deceitful'

The Leave campaign hit back, saying increased migration could blow a £600million hole in NHS Scotland's budget by 2030.

It said the arrival of migrants from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey - if the so-called A5 countries are admitted to the EU in 2020 - would require nearly 3000 extra doctors and nurses.

The row has echoes of the Scottish independence referendum campaign when, in the closing stages, both sides warned of dire consequences for the NHS if the vote went against them.

Ms Sturgeon told the RCN conference the EU referendum could have "profound consequences for the future of the health service right across the UK,"

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon brands Leave campaign NHS claims 'deceitful'

and she warned: "To protect the NHS, we need to vote to remain."

She said: "The claim that politicians leading the Leave campaign have made that they would spend more money on our NHS is surely one of the most deceitful and one of the most contemptible of all of the claims made.

"Before you make your choice on Thursday, look at what the leaders of the Leave campaign really think about our NHS.

"Boris Johnson wants patients to be charged for using the NHS, Michael Gove wanted privatisation, Nigel Farage wants the NHS funded by an insurance model rather than government funding."

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon brands Leave campaign NHS claims 'deceitful'

She added: "I wish that people like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage just once could acknowledge the immense contribution than migrant workers make to our NHS instead of demonising them at every turn.

"I wish that people like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage just once could acknowledge the contribution migrant workers make to our NHS, rather than demonising them at every turn.

"For me, the idea that our NHS could fall into the hands of people who actually sit even to the right of George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt fills me with utter horror."

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon brands Leave campaign NHS claims 'deceitful'

Scottish Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, released figures claiming NHS Scotland "could" require an extra £624million per year, by 2030, to maintain staffing in the face of increased immigration.

According to the campaign's forecast, an extra 269,000 EU citizens are set to settle in Scotland by that date, if the A5 countries join the EU in 2020.

The influx would require an additional 834 doctors and 2967 nurses to maintain relative NHS staff levels.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon brands Leave campaign NHS claims 'deceitful'

Under present rates of migration, without the accession of the five countries, Scotland's population would be swollen by an extra 133,000 people from the rest of the EU, Scottish Vote Leave said.

Under that scenario, a further 412 doctors and 1467 nurses would be required to maintain staff levels, adding £309million to NHS Scotland's costs.

Scottish Vote Leave Director Tom Harris said: "The First Minister is sticking her head in the sand by ignoring the pressures on local health services that would result from a Remain vote.

"Most functional modern democracies take for granted the right to control their borders.

"Why do Scotland’s political leaders choose to pretend that having uncontrolled immigration is somehow normal?"

He added: "At a time of stretched budgets, families will be concerned about the increasing pressure the NHS will come under from uncontrolled EU migration."

Professor Harry Burns, the former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland and member of the Scotland Stronger In Europe Advisory Group, said the claims were "simply wrong".

He said the health service would be starved of resourced because of economic damange Brexit would cause.

"Skilled men and women from other European countries make a vital contribution to Scotland's NHS and our public services would suffer if the Leave campaign took us out of the EU," he said.

Scottish Labour will today warn that Scotland's budget could be cut by up to £2.3billion by 2019/20 if the UK leaves the EU.

The claim was based on figures from the IFS think tank.

Leader Kezia Dugdale said: "Being part of the EU is good for Scotland's economy.

"Anything that damages our economy damages our public services, because there will be less money to spend on schools and the NHS."

Meanwhile, the CBI said there was the potential to create 70,800 jobs in Scotland if the UK remains in the EU.

Ross Thomson, Scottish Conservative MSP and Vote Leave campaigner, dismissed the economic warnings as "yet more negativity and doom and gloom from the Remain side".