Nicola Sturgeon will promise a “transformational” boost in NHS funding if the SNP is re-elected in May.
She will announce a £2.5bn cash increase when she unveils her party’s manifesto this morning.
Covid has caused havoc with the NHS and the health service is struggling to cope with a backlog of operations and treatments.
During the campaign, Sturgeon previously announced a reboot plan to increase elective and short-term hospital capacity.
At today’s launch, she will back a rise in health spending of at least 20% by the end of the Parliament - if re-elected.
Sturgeon is expected to say: “As we recover, we have the opportunity to reimagine our country. Not to return just to how things were - but to build a better nation.
“At the heart of our programme is the National Health Service.
“If the SNP is re-elected we will use our experience to undertake a full-scale post-pandemic remobilisation of the NHS.
“And today I am pledging a transformational increase in frontline health spending.
“Investment in the NHS is already at record levels.
“But the pandemic has placed exceptional pressures on our NHS - and that requires an exceptional response.
“So over the next Parliament, we will increase frontline NHS spending by at least 20 per cent.
“This will deliver an additional £2.5 billion for frontline health services - and is almost double what an inflation only increase would amount to.”
She will say: “For patients, we’ll establish a fast track cancer diagnostic centre in every health board area.
“We’ll invest £10 billion over the next decade to replace and refurbish health facilities across Scotland.
“And we will continue to invest in and reform mental health services, with a particular focus on child and adolescent services - an even greater priority given the impact of Covid on so many.
“So we will increase direct Scottish Government investment in mental health by at least 25%.
“And we will ensure every GP practice in the country has access to a dedicated mental wellbeing link worker, creating a network of 1,000 additional dedicated staff.”
She will also confirm that an SNP Government will create a new National Care Service.
Scottish Labour deputy leader and health and social care spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “The promise of new funds for our NHS is to be welcomed and we agree that we need transformational change - but after 14 years of SNP mismanagement we can have no faith in the SNP to deliver it.
“Under the SNP’s watch we have seen flagship hospitals opening years too late, delayed discharge persisting, a drugs death scandal, and their own Treatment Time Guarantee broken over 380,000 times.
"We must remember that as Health Minister, Nicola Sturgeon’s actions saw a cumulative total of £1bn withheld from the NHS.
“The fact of the matter is that we simply cannot trust the very party that has run down our NHS so badly to oversee its recovery.
“Scottish Labour is committed to putting the NHS at the front and centre of our national recovery – our NHS recovery plan will kickstart cancer services, invest in mental health services and deliver a proper pay rise for NHS staff and social care workers.
“Only Scottish Labour has the vision to deliver an NHS recovery that ensures that we never again have to choose between treating a virus and treating cancer.”
