Revealed: John Swinney's blueprint to revive the NHS and create 'digital front door'

The First Minister will today publish his plans that he says will give patients better access to NHS treatment through increased capacity, expanded primary care services and enhanced use of digital innovation with a new app.

SNP ministers have made the NHS a key battleground ahead of the 2026 election having vowed to hit an already-missed target for limiting waits for a new outpatient appointment, inpatient treatment or day case treatment to 12 months to be reached just two months before the crunch poll.

But the First Minister has been told his claims he can revive health services after almost two decades of SNP management “will fool no one”, having left health services in “full-on crisis mode” as the Scottish Government also comes under increased pressure over its now-scrapped plans to put social care on the same footing as the NHS.

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Critics have pointed to delayed discharge as compounding pressures in the NHS, with Mr Swinney’s strategy being set out less than a week after his government confirmed plans to create a centralised National Care Service have been axed.

In the Scottish Government’s draft Budget for 2025-26, more than £21 billion of funding has been allocated to health and social care - a record level of funding, aided by an additional £3.4bn of cash from Westminster.

Today, the First Minister will set out his government’s action to drive down waiting times and reduce pressure on frontline services.

Alongside SNP health secretary, Neil Gray, the First Minister will vow that increases in NHS capacity will result in 150,000 additional appointments and procedures per year.

His strategy will also include increased investment in primary care, making it easier for people to get appointments with their GP and improved use of data and new digital innovations including the roll-out of a Scottish health and social care app – a ‘digital front door’ to the NHS for patients.

The First Minister is expected to say: “Protecting, strengthening, renewing our NHS – that is a goal I think we can all get behind. A real focus of common purpose.

“That requires action from me, as First Minister, from my health secretary Neil Gray, and from my government. We can offer the leadership and direction – as the measures outlined today seek to do.

“So, today, we commit to a substantial increase in capacity in order to significantly reduce people’s waits.

“Our plan will ensure that a greater proportion of new NHS investment goes to primary and community care. GPs and services in the community will have the resources they need to play a greater role in our health system.”

Read more: 'Complex' patient stuck in Scottish hospital for seven years amid NHS delayed discharge crisis

Mr Swinney is expected to add: “This increased investment will result in GP services that are easier for people to access. That is important in terms of people’s confidence in the health service – but equally, it will make it more likely that health issues are picked up quickly and dealt with earlier.

“Our National Health Service is there when we need it. No other public institution supports us with so much care through life’s biggest moments. We must support it in return.

“The approach I set out today charts our course to do that. It addresses both the challenges and the opportunities. It sets the NHS on a path of modernisation and renewal.”

But Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, has warned that Mr Swinney’s claim he “ finally has a plan to fix our health service will fool no one”.

He said: “Patients and dedicated NHS staff have been failed by successive hapless SNP health secretaries, including Michael Matheson, Humza Yousaf and Neil Gray, who is too distracted with his limogate scandal to address the problems in our NHS.

“Delayed discharge levels are at record highs, one in six Scots are stuck on a waiting list, thousands of operations are being cancelled at the last minute and hard-working staff are stretched to breaking point.”

Dr Gulhane added: “Forget ‘full-on John’, after 18 years of SNP incompetence our NHS is in full-on crisis mode. Patients and staff deserve more than empty rhetoric, they need action.”

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Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokesperson, said that "any effort to improve Scots' access to the NHS is welcome”, but she warned that “it's just a shame it's taken the SNP nearly 18 years to take action”.

She said: "The UK Labour government delivered a record Budget settlement for Scotland so it is right that the Scottish Government increases appointment capacity.

"But with nearly one in six Scots on a waiting list and thousands stuck in hospital due to delayed discharge, there is no quick fix.”

Dame Jackie added: "The SNP government must tackle the crisis in social care and NHS recruitment to get our NHS running smoothly again, yet the SNP has presided over a failed National Care Service Bill while NHS workers are voting with their feet.

"Our NHS needs a new direction and Scottish Labour is ready to deliver it."

That warning comes as a former SNP health secretary, who took the initial steps to try setting up a National Care Service, warned she was “angry and dispirited” the flagship policy has now fallen flat.

Jeane Freeman, who stepped down as health secretary ahead of the 2021 Holyrood election, commissioned Derek Feeley to review adult social care in 2020, accepting his recommendations including the establishment of a National Care Service.

Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Ms Freeman said the reform was needed as levels of social care are “not equitable across the country”.

She added: “We got political support, and critically we've got support from Cosla for all of it, with one exception, and that was the structure change that he proposed.

“So how do I feel now? I feel angry. I feel dispirited because it is beyond my understanding how all of that support has been lost.

“And I think that the Scottish government now has a job to do, which is about focusing now in the short time it has left before the next Scottish election, not on trying to convince us that there is still a National Care Service when self-evidently nobody is convinced of that, but focusing on some of the immediate areas that need to be addressed.”