Health boards across the country are to be given an extra £50 million to reduce long waits for treatment, the Scottish Government has announced.
With health boards failing to meet a number of key waiting times targets - including cancer waiting times and the 12 weeks legal guarantee for day or inpatient treatment - Health Secretary Shona Robison said the additional cash would allow regional NHS boards to "best target funding where it is most needed".
Health boards will receive an initial share of £25 million, to be focused on a number of specialities including neurology, orthopaedics and diagnostics, in a bid to speed up treatment for patients.
A further £25 million will be made available later this year to build upon work being done with the Scottish Access Collaborative, which was set up to try to reduce waiting times for elective treatments.
In addition, two new independent diagnostic leads will be appointed to scrutinise the way in which the NHS operates and to ensure tests for illnesses such as cancer are carried out in a coordinated way across the country.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard blasted the SNP's management of the NHS, telling MSPs that in 2017 more than 54,000 people waited longer than the health service's 12-week treatment-time guarantee.
Announcing the funding, Ms Robison said: "Our NHS staff do a wonderful job every day. However, a challenging winter has impacted on our systems right across the health and social care system.
"This funding will help ensure prompt treatment for many and allow boards to best target funding where it is most needed.
"We're making great progress in improving the way serious illness, including cancer, is detected and treated but we know we need to do more to ensure people get access to the right care at the right time."
She added: "The new diagnostic posts are a vitally important step in making sure that, across Scotland, our health service can deliver high-quality and swift treatment to those who need it, and to make sure there is a consistency in approach.
"Their work will help shape treatment and care for the future."
Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: "Labour will always welcome further support for our NHS, but this announcement, the day before a host of waiting times data is set to be released, looks like an exercise in PR management rather than putting patients first.
"The brutal truth is the SNP government has failed to give our health service the support it needs. Staff are overworked and under pressure and patients face unacceptable waits.
"Rather than announcing pots of money as sticking plaster solutions we need real change across our health service, starting with fixing the workforce crisis to ensure our hospitals have enough doctors and nurses."
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