The fact of the matter is that NHS waiting lists are getting longer, not shorter, on this Government’s watch. The answer that the First Minister was looking for is that more than 15.3 million working hours were lost in a single year in the middle of an NHS crisis. That is the equivalent of 640,000 days lost in our NHS when one in six Scots is on an NHS waiting list.

That has real consequences. Let us take the example of the experience of Karen Campbell, a national health service dental nurse of 25 years, who has been forced to quit after waiting for years for prolapse and hip surgery. Karen just wanted to get back to the job that she loved, but she could not because of her untreated condition. Karen said this:

“It would have been so much easier if they’d fixed me up and kept me working, but now I feel let down. I still appreciate the NHS, but my experience shows how broken the system is.”

Can the First Minister explain why an NHS dental nurse has been forced to quit due to NHS waiting lists, when we have NHS staff shortages and an NHS crisis?