To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details regarding the announcement that NHS Dumfries and Galloway has moved to stage 3 of the NHS Scotland support and Intervention framework. (S6O-04909)

The NHS Scotland support and Intervention framework is one of the key elements of monitoring performance and managing risk across the national health service in Scotland. All NHS boards are continuously reviewed against that framework, based on their financial performance.

The decision was taken to escalate NHS Dumfries and Galloway to stage 3 of the framework for finance. That will include increased oversight and co-ordinated engagement, ensuring that the board is provided with the appropriate support and that it returns to financial sustainability. Regular updates will be provided to ministers on the financial position of NHS Dumfries and Galloway following the escalation.

The escalation of the health board to stage 3 is a genuine concern for people across the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area, many of whom already struggle to access healthcare. The picture across Scotland is one in which health boards are under extreme pressure to make significant cost savings, rather than focusing on the day-to-day job of delivering the highest standards of healthcare.

Through its funding formula, the Scottish National Party Government has, in effect, left rural health boards high and dry and fending for themselves. It is systematically failing rural Scotland due to the skewed funding formula. Will the Minister now commit to revising the NHS Scotland resource allocation committee funding formula to make sure that rural funding meets rural health needs and that health boards such as NHS Dumfries and Galloway are not left in an impossible situation?

I will point out to Craig Hoy a couple of facts about NRAC and the funding position. NRAC explicitly takes account of rurality and the challenge of delivering services in rural and island communities. That directly contradicts Mr Hoy’s understanding of NRAC.

When it comes to the financing of health boards across Scotland, we delivered at the budget a £21.7 billion funding settlement for health and social care services in Scotland. That was a record funding settlement, which the Tories opposed. Not only did they oppose it, but their tax and spending plans would have involved £1 billion coming out of the funding of public services and the decimation of the health service. Those were the plans that Mr Hoy put forward.

I recognise that the SNP Government is committed to fully funding our NHS to ensure that patients receive the best possible care. Given the challenges that have been described, will the Cabinet secretary outline how NHS Dumfries and Galloway in particular will continue to benefit from record funding—notably that in the 2025-26 Scottish budget?

In the 2025-26 budget, NHS boards received increased investment in their baseline funding, bringing total investment to more than £16.2 billion, with NHS Dumfries and Galloway receiving more than £425 million That represents an increase in investment of £60.7 million compared with 2024-25, including additional funding to provide for prior-year pay deals as well as a range of funding to support vital front-line services. NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s resource budget has increased by 22.3 per cent in real terms between 2010-11 and 2025-26, and in cash terms by £218 million between 2006-07 and 2025-26.