SORT IT OUT

Brave Harvey spends every day in agony -missing school & playing with his pals. He will have to wait months to get spinal op on NHS. His mum is so desperate she's trying to raise cash to pay for it privately. This is the reality of the crisis facing the next first minister..

- BY VIVIENNE AITKEN

NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to sort out the crisis-hit NHS after a nine-year-old boy with a painful disorder was told he'll continue to wait in agony for treatment.

Harvey Martin spends every day in pain due to a spinal condition which should have been corrected last year.

But waiting lists in hospitals are so long that Harvey's operation is six months overdue and counting.

Now his mum Natalie, 44, is being forced to consider private surgery and is fundraising to pay for it to end his suffering.

The schoolboy suffers from neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition which causes tumours to grow on the nervous system.

Yesterday at Holyrood, Labour leader Anas Sarwar revealed Harvey's story and demanded that Sturgeon and her successor as first minister - gets to grips with the NHS.

His attack at First Minister's Questions came after SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes savaged Health Secretary Humza Yousaf's record during a TV debate on Tuesday night.

Sarwar said: "Across Scotland, thousands of people are opting to pay for treatment because they can't wait for the NHS.