Swinney to launch SNP manifesto with plan to make ‘NHS fit for the future’

The SNP will commit to a three-stage plan to make the NHS fit for the future, John Swinney will say as he launches the party’s manifesto.

The First Minister will tell an audience in Glasgow that he will offer voters “experienced and trusted leadership” that can steer Scotland through “tough days”.

The SNP leader will also set out “real action” to support Scots through the cost-of-living crisis.

In a speech on Thursday, Mr Swinney will unveil his plan to ensure Scotland’s NHS is fit for purpose.

He will set out a three-pronged approach: investment, protection and renewal.

The First Minister will promise that the NHS will get the cash that it needs to cut waiting lists.

He will promise to protect the health service’s founding principles of being free at the point of use.

And he will set out reform to refocus resources on keeping people out of hospital, while shifting the balance of care into the community.

He is expected to say: “The NHS is our most important public service. We have a plan to make our NHS fit for the future – with three parts. Investment, protection and renewal.

“Investment that will see the NHS get the resources it needs to deliver progress and keep cutting waiting times.

“Protection of the NHS principles of comprehensive, universal and free at the point of need.

“And mark my words – never selling patient data to dodgy billionaires and the Palantirs of this world.

“And renewal – changing how the NHS works, refocusing resources on keeping people out of hospital, shifting the balance of care.

“And, of course, action to the end the 8am rush for GP appointments, as we continue to roll out GP walk-in clinics.

“That is a government focused on improving Scotland’s NHS. That is what you get when you vote SNP on May 7.”

Mr Swinney will urge voters to back the SNP, saying that he offers “experienced and trusted leadership to help Scotland through these tough days”.

He will promise to lead a government “that will always be on Scotland’s side” and use “all of my energy to improve the lives of the people of Scotland” and “give Scotland, with independence, the fresh start our country needs”.

He will add: “In this election, I am asking people to give me the mandate to act always with, and for, the people who live here.

“When I became First Minister, I promised to serve all of the people of Scotland.

“I reaffirm that promise today and commit to creating the best future I can for our country.”

Jackie Baillie, deputy leader of Scottish Labour and the party’s health spokesperson, said Mr Swinney’s “brass neck” was “absolutely astonishing”.

She said the SNP’s record on health after 19 years was “utterly abysmal”.

She added: “SNP ministers engaged in covering up the deaths of patients, including children at the QEUH due to hospital-linked infections, patients are being forced to suffer agonising waits in A&E, and our hardworking staff are being pushed to breaking point.

“If John Swinney and the SNP cared whatsoever about our NHS, they would have bolstered their support for it long before now. Instead, as usual, they are choosing to push a grievance narrative to hide their failings. It is pathetic.”

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said iIf the SNP had a plan to fix our NHS, “we’d have seen it after nearly two disastrous decades in power”.

She said: “The nationalists have run our health service into the ground – and John Swinney’s been at the top table the whole time. His fingerprints are all over the SNP’s record of failure.

“Swinney has the brass neck to claim he’s serving all the people of Scotland – when he’s relentlessly pushing for a divisive independence referendum that most people don’t want.

“The only thing he cares about is breaking up the United Kingdom and if his party get a majority at May’s election, he will not let up.

“That’s why it’s critical that pro-UK voters use their peach ballot to vote for the Scottish Conservatives – it’s the tried and tested way to stop an SNP majority.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat MP and election campaign chair Wendy Chamberlain said: “From Salmond to Swinney, the SNP have created a culture of secrecy and broken promises which has had a highly damaging impact on the level of public trust.

“From questions of financial mismanagement to the failure to hold people like Jordan Linden to account for unacceptable behaviour, it would seem that there is something fundamentally rotten at the core of the SNP.

“Scots are still waiting for promises on recruitment in our schools and income tax to be fulfilled and to be able to access the NHS via an app, like people in England can.

“Swinney and Sturgeon deleted their Covid WhatsApp messages. The ferry network is a mess and pledges on educational attainment have been dropped.

“No-one will believe a word that their manifesto says.

“At the election, Scots can use their second peach regional ballot paper to repair the damage the SNP has caused by backing the Scottish Liberal Democrats who are committed to transparency, accountability, and to change with fairness at its heart.”