{"id":32345,"date":"2014-09-18T11:07:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T10:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=32345"},"modified":"2014-09-18T11:11:31","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T10:11:31","slug":"the-bmj-today-the-unanswered-questions-on-scotlands-day-of-reckoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/09\/18\/the-bmj-today-the-unanswered-questions-on-scotlands-day-of-reckoning\/","title":{"rendered":"The BMJ Today: The unanswered questions on Scotland\u2019s day of reckoning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the people of Scotland will cast their landmark vote on whether to break away from the UK and become an independent nation. By this time tomorrow, they will have unequivocally answered the single burning question: \u201cYes&#8221; or \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0But in medical circles, a raft of deeper questions about the potential impact on healthcare will remain largely unanswered.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As the vote has drawn closer, <em>The BMJ<\/em> has tracked doctors\u2019 views. A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/349\/bmj.g5072\">recent snapshot survey of 300 doctors<\/a> working in Scotland revealed that 60% were intending to vote \u201cno\u201d to independence. Many of these <a href=\"http:\/\/careers.bmj.com\/careers\/advice\/view-article.html?id=20018822\">were prompted by concerns about how medical research and staff recruitment would be affected<\/a> in an independent Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>There are also fears that a drain on NHS funding would occur if Scotland goes it alone. But the debate has not been one sided, with some believing that an independent Scotland would be better placed to resist and reject the commercialisation that has now infused the NHS in England.<\/p>\n<p>And, as <a href=\"http:\/\/careers.bmj.com\/careers\/advice\/view-article.html?id=20018902\">Abi Rimmer discusses in this BMJ Careers article<\/a>, a \u201cyes\u201d vote could spark big changes to medical regulation, given that the General Medical Council currently oversees the whole of the UK.<\/p>\n<p>If the country does vote \u201cyes,\u201d expect today\u2019s question to be the first of many in a new independent Scotland.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Gareth Iacobucci<\/strong>\u00a0is news reporter for The BMJ.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the people of Scotland will cast their landmark vote on whether to break away from the UK and become an independent nation. By this time tomorrow, they will have [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/09\/18\/the-bmj-today-the-unanswered-questions-on-scotlands-day-of-reckoning\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5750],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-bmj-today"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The BMJ Today: The unanswered questions on Scotland\u2019s day of reckoning - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/09\/18\/the-bmj-today-the-unanswered-questions-on-scotlands-day-of-reckoning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The BMJ Today: The unanswered questions on Scotland\u2019s day of reckoning - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, the people of Scotland will cast their landmark vote on whether to break away from the UK and become an independent nation. 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