ANAS SARWAR

LEADER OF THE SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY EVERY SECOND MONDAY

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THE crisis in our NHS is one of the biggest challenges our country faces.

Since the SNP was elected, it has produced the equivalent of one strategy every seven weeks. But while this paperwork piles up, our health service is in the most precarious position in my lifetime.

Patients are forced to choose between painfully long waits for NHS treatment or painfully high costs for private care.

The founding principles of our NHS - a health service free and available to all at the point of need are at risk.

At the top of the SNP's list of excuses and deflections is the Covid pandemic.

Now, I don't deny that the pandemic took a huge toll on our health service - but it would also be wrong to suggest it is the source of all its problems.

In reality, Covid exposed the underlying weaknesses of our NHS and accelerated the decline we were already seeing on so many measures.