To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reported comments from the chair of the British Medical Association in Scotland, that Scotland’s NHS is “dying before our eyes”. (S6F-04352)

As I have indicated to Parliament on a number of occasions, I acknowledge the pressures that our national health service faces, but let me provide some context about the situation that we find ourselves in at this time. Waits are coming down in the NHS. More than 95 per cent of patients who are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland are starting treatment within 31 days. Statistics this week show that the median wait for treatment was two days—the joint lowest on record. Ninety-seven per cent of discharges from Scottish hospitals happen without delay. The latest accident and emergency figures show that July 2025 had the lowest number of eight and 12-hour waits for any month since September 2023. The number of operations that were performed in July was the highest in five years—8.9 per cent higher than in July last year. General practitioner numbers are up, and the numbers of nurses, midwives and staff working in our NHS are also up.

There are challenges, but the Government is investing to support the national health service.

The verdict from Dr Kennedy, who is a front-line clinician, is a damning indictment on this Scottish National Party Government. He says that “the system is broken”—his words, not mine. Let us take cancer as an example. The last time that the Scottish National Party met its 62-day treatment target was 13 years ago. The number of cancer cases is now at a record high, and the number of deaths has increased, too.

The poorest communities are being hit the hardest by the SNP’s failures on cancer. Data from 2022 showed that the incidence of cancer was 24 per cent higher for the most deprived Scots compared with the least deprived. However, this week, the Government refused to publish the latest data on cancer and deprivation. Why is the Government fiddling with the figures yet again? What is it hiding? The First Minister cannot allow people to die early because they live in our poorest communities. What will he do to end the cancer postcode lottery?

I acknowledge the challenges with the 62-day cancer target. However, once someone has been identified as having a cancer diagnosis, the median wait on the 31-day pathway is two days, and the 95 per cent standard has been met again by the national health service. Those are important steps.

I say to Jackie Baillie that the risk of dying from cancer in Scotland is now at a record low, with an 11.1 per cent reduction in mortality rate since 2013. Although I acknowledge that there are still many pressures in the national health service, I hope that those two statistics—the median wait of two days for cancer treatment against the successfully met 31-day target; and the risk of dying from cancer in Scotland being at a record low—will provide Jackie Baillie with reassurance that the Government is focused on treating and supporting patients in all communities in Scotland. I am absolutely determined to ensure that we tackle issues of inequality. That is at the heart of the Government’s strategy and drives our policy approach.

Ms Baillie did not say that Dr Kennedy’s assessment of our NHS also stated:

“if it wasn’t for international medical graduates and doctors coming from overseas, the NHS would have ... collapsed.”

We know that Westminster and Labour’s anti-immigration policies are frustrating the efforts of overseas medical staff to come to Scotland and support our health and social care services. [ Interruption .]

Let us hear one another.

Will the First Minister join me in calling for the Prime Minister to rethink harmful anti-immigration policies?

Clare Adamson raises a significant issue about the flow of individuals coming to work in our national health service. In the year ending in June 2025, there was a 77 per cent drop in the number of health and care worker visas that were granted by the Home Office. Scottish Care data indicates that 26 per cent of social care workers in our social care system have come from another country. That tells us that we depend on a flow of individuals coming into Scotland to support our national health service. That is being made more difficult, if not impossible, by the actions of the Labour Government. If Jackie Baillie is interested in solutions, she should try to persuade the United Kingdom Labour Government to take a different course that will help our national health service.

We move to Constituency and general supplementary questions.