Nicola Sturgeon has announced a £1billion plan for the National Health Service to help it recover and grow following the devastating covid pandemic.
The NHS Recovery Plan will aim to "improve care" and tackle the backlog of cases that have mounted up over the last 18 months since the pandemic took hold in March 2020.
The Scottish Government 's plan sets out a number of key areas that it wants to improve in the NHS and increase capacity by at least 10 per cent over the next five years.
Reforms to primary and acute services will help the health service recover and get people the treatment they need.
Throughout the course of the pandemic the NHS was crippled by a high number of people in hospitals and intensive care units across the country.
Cancer treatments, operations and face-to-face GP appointments were just some of the services that were cancelled during the first wave of the deadly virus.
Restoring in-person GP consultations is a priority for the government as it looks to get the NHS back to a pre-pandemic state.
Here's all you need to know about the plan:
What is in the plan?
- Increasing investment in National Treatment Centres (NTCs) to more than £400 million, contributing to delivery of over 40,000 additional elective surgeries and procedures per year
- Raising primary care investment by 25%, supporting GPs, community pharmacists, dentists and optometrists
- Investing £29 million to target diagnostic backlogs, providing 78,000 additional procedures in 2021/22 rising to 90,000 per year from 2025/26
- Providing £8 million to support the mental health and wellbeing of the health and care workforce
- Investing £11 million in new national and international recruitment campaigns to produce an additional 1,500 staff over the next five years for our NTCs, 1,000 mental health link workers in communities, 800 more GPs, and boosting paramedic numbers through the £10,000 Paramedic Bursary.
- Delivering £23 million to redesign urgent care – with rapid access to a senior clinician via a telephone or video consultation where possible, reducing the pressure on A&E
- Devoting £130 million to deliver our National Cancer Plan and Detect Cancer Early Programme
- Ensuring at least 10% of frontline health spending will be dedicated to mental health, and recruiting 320 additional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workers
What has Nicola Sturgeon said about the plan?
Following the announcement, Sturgeon said: "This Plan will drive the recovery of our NHS, not just to its pre-pandemic level but beyond.
"As we maintain our resilience against COVID-19 and other pressures, the Scottish Government is providing targeted investment to increase capacity, reform the system and ultimately get everyone the treatment they need as quickly as possible.
"Tackling the backlog of care is essential and will be a priority.
"But we want to go further than that and deliver an NHS that is innovative, sustainable and stronger than ever before."
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