GORDON Brown has insisted the NHS would be “in trauma” within a decade if Scotland became independent.

The former prime minister said the NHS would be a “diminished service” after separation – and repeated his claims that the SNP’s plans would lead to austerity.

He argued Scotland’s health service is currently "under-staffed, under-equipped and under-financed", despite Theresa May recently announcing a £20 billion future funding boost, translating to an extra £2bn north of the Border.

Writing in The Scotsman to mark this week's 70th anniversary of the NHS, Mr Brown stated: "The NHS at 80 years old would, sadly, be in trauma if independence should ever happen.

"What has become clear from the SNP's Growth Commission blueprint – what Nicola Sturgeon calls the foundation for independence – is that public spending would rise less than under Tory austerity and that even then, any new money there is would be eaten up by massive interest rate payments on what would be almost £100 billion of new Scottish debt.

"While in both Scotland and the UK, the NHS will need five per cent more each year to meet the unprecedented needs of a rising elderly population, the more likely fate of the NHS in an independent Scotland is a diminished service under even more intolerable pressures than now."

Mr Brown previously warned austerity will be “here until doomsday” under the SNP and its proposals for independence.

He accused the Nationalists and the UK Government of presiding over the worst decade of NHS growth since it was created 70 years ago.

A spokesman for Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: "This is utter nonsense from Gordon Brown, who knows full well that the biggest threat to Scotland's NHS comes from the very real prospect of a post-Brexit trade deal being forced on us against our will by a Tory UK government.

"That could see our health service becoming a sacrificial pawn in a Tory-Trump trade deal, after the Westminster power grab on Holyrood - and that is what Gordon Brown should be warning of instead of issuing outdated, discredited attacks on independence.

"The SNP is providing record health funding after Labour planned to spend even less on it than the Tories."

The spokesman added independence would enable Scotland to protect the health service from Westminster austerity and Brexit trade deals.