In its manifesto for the Scottish Parliament election on 7 May, the SNP also promised to eliminate waits for elective treatment longer than 26 weeks by the end of the Parliament.

The manifesto also committed to delivering new community health and care hubs, creating GP walk-in clinics, expanding mental health support, focusing more on prevention and delivering care in the community, and expanding various parts of the health and social care workforce, including guaranteed NHS employment for new graduates in frontline health-related subjects.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the capital spending commitment was ‘almost certainly lower in real terms than its current Spending Review plans for the next four years, which imply average health and social care capital spending of just over £1bn per year in cash terms between 2026–27 and 2029–30'.

With Scotland's hospitals treating fewer elective patients than pre-pandemic, unlike in England or Wales, the IFS said the SNP's pledge to eliminate 26-week elective waits was a ‘stretching target, not least because the Spending Review implies relatively small increases in hospital funding in order to shift more funding to community and social care'.

‘The challenge of improving NHS performance should not be underestimated,' the IFS added.

The IFS concluded: ‘Improving services in the ways the SNP promises would require more staff, but increases in health and social care staffing would mean deeper cuts to other public sector employment if the Scottish Government wanted to meet its workforce reduction targets.'