Scotland’s First Minister is promising a shift in NHS spending to GP and community services to cut the time people wait to get an appointment – with investment in GP teams to deliver services for people with common health risks such as high blood pressure and obesity.

First Minister John Swinney was addressing parliament as the Scottish government published its key priorities for the year ahead in ‘Delivering for Scotland’ Programme for Government 2025-26.

Launching the plan, Mr Swinney said the programme will “make Scotland healthier and wealthier”, “getting our NHS back on track” by ensuring there is “more capacity and more opportunity for people to access health services” in Scotland.

NHS waits

While much of the Programme for Government’s health and care plan restates the government’s commitments from its NHS renewal plans launched earlier this year, it does set out new GP appointment targets.

The First Minister said primary care is set to receive a bigger share of new NHS funding than previously, including to increasing the number of GPs:

“A key part of the programme will be improving access to NHS facilities, reducing waiting times and making sure we tackle the 8am rush for GP appointments.

“We’ll take practical measures to ensure we improve that access and meet the expectations of people in ensuring they get the health services they require when they need those services.”

The government says it will deliver an extra 100,000 appointments in GP practices for key health risks – from high blood pressure and cholesterol to obesity and smoking.

These additional appointments will be delivered by March 2026, as part of the GP heart disease prevention scheme launched last month.

A further expansion of Pharmacy First services over the next year has also been detailed to help reduce the pressure on GPs as the First Minister said he wants to see an end to the “8am GP lottery”.

Diagnostics and hospital appointments

Alongside targeted efforts to improve access to primary care services, the government has restated its commitment to deliver more than 150,000 extra appointments and procedures.

Mr Swinney told parliament today that there will be a “renewed focus on cancer diagnosis and treatment”, with targeted investments across health boards to clear backlogs and “substantially” improve waiting times.

Following its new health innovation funding in March this year which saw a genetic testing for target stroke care receive £1.1m, the government plan states this service will be rolled out to all health boards by October 2026.

It also details £250,000 for women’s health research with the aim of ‘closing gaps’ in understanding and care, specifically around menstrual health, gynaecological conditions, menopause, pelvic floor health and healthy ageing support.

NHS health boards will be monitored on their progress towards a new model of miscarriage care seeing all clinically-appropriate women offered hormone treatment backed by 2025-26.

Social care and voluntary health care

The government says it will launch the initial version of its health and social care app by the end of the year.

It will then, minister say, detail a national rollout programme for the app to be delivered across Scotland and deliver longer-term plans for the wider ‘personalised digital health and social care service’.

The Programme for Government restates the government’s plan to publish its service renewal framework before summer 2025, detailing implementation steps for health and social care reform over the next decade.

It also recognises the importance of a ‘thriving third sector’ in Scotland and commits to deliver its Fairer Funding pilot of multi-year funding for voluntary organisations, with an interim evaluation dates now set for May 2026.

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