PEOPLE believe the importance of protecting and improving the NHS means more to the SNP than any other party, a new poll indicates.
A survey by the Conservative Party's former deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft of 20,000 voters in November showed that on a scale of 0 for not important to 10 extremely important, the Nationalists rated 7.04.
Second in the research findings was Labour on 6.69, the Liberal Democrats rated 5.63, Tories were on 5.30 while UKIP registered 4.46.
The poll was carried out in November, meaning the SNP government's handling of the Ebola scare after Scots public health worker Pauline Cafferkey became the first to be diagnosed with the illness, will not have had a bearing on the results.
The research showed Labour had a 18-point lead over the Tories on the NHS, and only 15% think the service has got improved in the last five years.
When asked which party had the best approach to the NHS, nearly half (47%) said Labour.
In the past five years 51% of Britons thought the health service has got worse, while 34% believe it has stayed the same. Only 15% thought things were better.
Lord Ashcroft said there had been a failure to "complete the decontamination" of the Conservative brand.
He said: "The party's modernisation will be complete when it is trusted to sustain and reform the NHS. The tragedy is that, in opposition, by campaigning confidently on the NHS the Tories managed to neutralise Labour's advantage. Though the party may never overtake Labour on health, the NHS does not have to be its perpetual political millstone."
The poll also showed that over half said they "expect the NHS in 10 years' time to offer a full range of services to everyone to a high standard".
And some 86% thought more private providers will be used to provide NHS services and 77% thought charges will be introduced for more services.
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