CONS - LYNNE NAILON

Our healthcare staff across this region have gone beyond the call of duty during the pandemic and I am incredibly grateful to every single one of them.

The astonishing success of the vaccination scheme across Scotland and the United Kingdom means we are looking hopeful towards the end of the health crisis, and a return to normality.

We must look at how we fund our health services in the future and guarantee our staff have the resources they need and patients can access services in their local community.

The Scottish Conservatives would increase funding for our NHS by £2 billion over the course of the next Parliament, which will be pledged in law. The pandemic has also created a backlog among patients waiting for vital treatments and procedures.

That’s why we have pledged a further £600 million on top of our other planned increases to specifically target the log-jam and guarantee patients can be seen as quickly as possible. Even prior to the pandemic, the SNP were routinely missing waiting time targets and that must change.

That was also the case when it came to seeing mental health patients on time.

The constant lockdowns have exacerbated our mental health crisis, which is why the Scottish Conservatives are pledging to ring-fence 10 per cent of the health budget for mental health treatment.

Too many people are waiting too long to be seen and we must ensure that a widening mental health crisis does not become a legacy of this crisis. This funding will help expand community health services such as social prescribing, peer support and cognitive therapy.

Only a vote for the Scottish Conservatives guarantees that we can have a parliament that will be 100 per cent focused on our health recovery and supporting vital local services, rather than having the SNP dragging us back to another divisive referendum.