Our NHS

Scottish Labour will deliver a true NHS Recovery Plan that transforms our NHS into a modern service that is based in communities, values its staff, and focuses on promoting health as well as treating illness. To get the NHS fit for the future we will:

• Use additional investment in the health service to deliver 160,000 more appointments each year to tackle the waiting list backlog.
• Protect primary care services from cuts and deliver a mental health worker in every GP surgery.
• Harness technology and innovation so patients can be diagnosed and treated faster, with easier access to services.
• Grow the NHS Scotland workforce by retaining experienced staff and increase training places here in Scotland.
• Establish a National Clinical Council, a statutory body made up of health professionals where they can use their skills, expertise, and knowledge to inform decision-making and advise Ministers.
• Invest in social care and tackle delayed discharge by ending non- residential care charges and increasing care packages, design a National Care Service that is worthy of the name, and set out a plan to raise social care staff pay to £15 per hour.
• Reform our NHS to cut unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure that patients can easily access services in their own community.