The funding will see more than 150,000 extra patients treated and expand the Hospital at Home programme by 600 beds.

The 2025-26 Budget, if approved by Parliament, will provide a record £21bn for Health and Social Care, including:

• £16.2bn for NHS Boards to deliver key services.
• £2.2bn for Primary Care services – a 7.9% increase.
• an increase of £139m in capital spending power, progressing the Belford Hospital, Monklands Hospital and Edinburgh Eye Pavilion projects.
• £200m to help reduce waiting times and improve capacity.
• £3m to create additional dental training places.
• an additional £5m for short breaks to support unpaid carers.

Health secretary Neil Gray said: ‘These measures are key in driving forward our vision of a Scotland where people live longer, healthier and fulfilling lives. The funding outlined will support NHS reform and our efforts to improve population health with a focus on prevention and early intervention.

‘We want to make progress on improving our NHS, but to do that, Parliament must approve our Budget Bill to unlock investment to drive long-term and lasting improvements – and the healthier population - that we all want to see.'

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh welcomed the funding commitments on delayed discharges and social care, but warned that 12 months is still a long time to wait for a hospital appointment.

Dr Conor Maguire, vice-president (International), added: ‘If we are to match this ambitious target and ideally do even better, then strong policies on recruitment and retention – which includes valuing our hard-working healthcare workers - will be essential.'

Chief executive of Scottish Care, Dr Donald Macaskill, said the Budget is ‘even more disappointing than we feared it would be'.

He added: ‘Scottish Care called for a budget that cares. This is a budget that kills. It will kill any reassurance that the Scottish Government truly values social care, and it will kill essential community services which are forced to close and leave workers without employment. But ultimately, it will kill people. People are dying because they can't get the social care they need. I hear of services that will need to close and make staff redundant by next week. This is not good enough.'

Bruce Cartwright, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, said: ‘There is no point spending more money on health services or schools, if there's no willingness or incentive to change how we deliver these services. We need to identify how and where things must improve.

‘We also need to see evidence of whether standards have gone up, waiting times have come down, and more crimes have been solved.'