GORDON Brown has dismissed SNP claims the NHS will be at risk if Scotland votes No to independence.

The former Prime Minister also said more than £2000 is spent per head per year on healthcare in Scotland, which is £200 more than in England, according to figures for 2012-2013.

Speaking at a Labour campaign event in the Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Mr Brown again made his argument for a No vote and said there was "no point" getting rid of the jointly funded NHS.

Mr Brown said: "There is no point in getting rid of the unified funding of the NHS.

"Every year we spend £2115 for every Scot on health care. In England it is £1912, that's £200 less spent in England and in Wales it is even less.

"It is necessary we spend more in Scotland because of greater need and more rural areas."

The Yes campaign has claimed the NHS in England is at risk of privatisation and, as a result, the money allocated to Scotland from Westminster will be cut.

First Minister Alex Salmond has said the NHS is being privatised "by stealth" in England and claims the less cash spent south of the border on health means a cut in the Scottish block grant and pressure on the NHS in Scotland.

Mr Brown dismissed the notion. He said health matters were devolved so only the Scottish Government could privatise the NHS north of the border.

He added: "The Scots have all the powers in our own Parliament to prevent the NHS being privatised in Scotland. The only current political leader who has the powers to privatise the NHS in Scotland is Alex Salmond."

The No campaign have also said no government at Westminster could privatise the NHS against the wishes of the majority of people.

Mr Brown stressed that people in all parts of the UK wanted to keep the service free and not privatised, and added there was "no culture clash" between Scotland and England on the issue of the NHS.

He said: "We know the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland share the same view as we do - that it should be free and never privatised and more should be spent on it."

Raising questions over the SNP's plans to generate funding for the health service, Mr Brown said the Nationalists had no proposals to raise tax for the most well-off or tax bankers' bonuses.

Finally, he claimed the SNP would give private energy firms a £300m boost and suggested they would be the biggest beneficiaries in an independent Scotland.

Ending his speech, Mr Brown stressed the unique arrangement of the NHS and said no other group of countries in the world had managed to achieve a shared system of healthcare funding,

He said: "There are no four nations in the world who share the cost of healthcare in the way we do in the UK.

"It is a unique arrangement - in some cases not even within one country have they managed to achieve what we have.

"You have to think twice of the benefits of throwing all this way.

"Scots benefit from being part of the UK system of funding."