Humza Yousaf used a visit to a Fife hospital on Monday to set out how his £300 million cash injection will tackle long NHS waiting lists.
Mr Yousaf is heading to the national orthopaedic treatment centre in Kirkcaldy to detail how he wants the use the first installment of the money – £30 million – to drive down waiting times.
The Scottish Government says the new centre has created additional capacity for around 540 joint replacement operations in its first year.
By 2025-26, the centre will create capacity for an extra 700 orthopaedic surgeries each year.
It’s hoped the latest investment will drive down health service waiting lists by 100,000 over the next three years.
The median waiting time for orthopaedic surgery in the Kingdom is around 25 weeks.
This is despite most patients in Scotland having a legal right to treatment within 12 weeks of being placed on a waiting list.
During his visit, Mr Yousaf heard from staff at the NHS Fife-run facility, including consultant orthopedic surgeon Andy Ballantyne.
The first minister said he was convinced the money would make a difference.
He said: “People across Fife and Scotland have undoubtedly been waiting far too long for treatment, a lot of that due the impacts of the pandemic.
“This addition of £30 million, the first installment of £300 million over the next three years, will make a significant difference.
“By the three years we hope to reduce waiting lists by 100,000.”
The first minister told The Courier he understood why many patients were angry after suffering lengthy waits for operations.
“We completely understand that frustration. It’s why we put a lot of concentration around reducing the longest waiting lists,” he added.
“We’ve been able to make a reduction in the longest waits, but we want to go much further than that.
“People can be assured, whether its in Fife or elsewhere, the Scottish Government has a laser-like focus on reducing waiting lists.”
But his visit comes weeks after NHS Scotland announced a pause to its capital projects, including a new national treatment centre proposed at Perth Royal Infirmary.
Asked about the decision coming as he highlighted the importance of the NTC model, Mr Yousaf said: “We’ve had to make a really difficult decision around health infastructure, that’s because we’re facing from the UK Government a £1.3 billion cut to our capital budget.
“That’s where the significant challenge for us remains. If the UK Government reversed that, we’d be able to ensure a number of the project that are paused were able to resume.”
Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said the first minister was simply reciting the same old “empty promises”.
‘Same old empty promises’
She said: “When Humza Yousaf was Health Secretary, he let waiting lists spiral out of control, and this policy won’t even undo the damage he has done.
“Even if the SNP deliver on this pledge, waiting lists will be longer than when Humza Yousaf published his so-called NHS Recovery Plan.
“Any efforts to tackle the scandalous NHS waiting lists that causing suffering for thousands of Scots are welcome, but what we need is results.
“The SNP must drive down waiting lists with the urgency needed and come clean about the delivery of National Treatment Centres, which have been thrown into chaos by the SNP’s brutal cuts to NHS infrastructure budgets.”
The Scottish Conservative also accused the first minister of a lack of vision.
Tory health spokesman, and GP, Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “Humza Yousaf needs to do better than recycling promises – only for them to fail – and drive down waiting times as a matter of urgency.
“If he wants somewhere to start, he should adopt the bold policies in our health paper which would deliver a modern, efficient and local health service.”
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