Meeting of the Parliament 02 March 2016
I am very happy to take part in the debate, which provides a timely opportunity to acknowledge the commitment and dedication of health and social care staff across the whole of Scotland; to reflect on our record and performance, which I will be extremely happy to put in front of the Scottish people in the next few weeks; and to comment on the actions that are being taken to ensure that Scotland’s NHS will continue to be the world-class service that it is.
The budget for 2016-17, which was agreed by Parliament last week, confirms that health spending in Scotland will rise to a record level close to £13 billion. This Government has increased the health resource budget by 6.8 per cent in real terms between 2010-11 and 2016-17, and we will continue to provide real-terms protection. Last week, I confirmed that in 2016-17 more than £500 million of additional funding is being allocated to Scotland’s health boards, with a 5.5 per cent increase in territorial boards’ budget levels. That funding includes investment of an additional £250 million to support the integration of health and social care and to build the capacity of community-based services—which, of course, the Labour Party asked us to do in a previous debate.