The remobilisation of our NHS and social care system, not just to pre-pandemic levels, but beyond is at the heart of the Scottish Government's work programme and will be for years to come.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to our health and care staff for their heroic efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has been the biggest shock our NHS has ever faced, and we are still continuing to see the impact of this on services more than two years since the first cases arrived in wards.

When I visit wards up and down the country and talk to staff, it’s clear how tough those two years have been, and what a strain the pandemic has put on our workforce. There has also been a huge impact on patients and their families, with some people waiting longer for treatment. I have already set out £1 billion of targeted investment over the next five years to increase NHS capacity, deliver reforms in the delivery of care, and get everyone the treatment they need as quickly as is possible. Our extraordinary staff will be at the centre of everything we do. We already have record NHS workforce numbers and this will expand significantly in the coming years, with additional Doctors, Nurses and Allied Health Professionals both in the community and in our acute sites.

The continuing roll-out of our network of 10 National Treatment Centres (NTCs) with an extra £400m will provide an additional 40,000 procedures every year.

The pandemic and resultant lockdowns have also underlined the importance of good mental health and that's why I've pledged that 10% of frontline health spending will be dedicated to mental health services, with 1% of this specifically for services targeted at children and young people.

We prioritised limiting the impact of the pandemic on cancer treatment. We continue to see an increasing number of cancer referrals and our priority is to ensure these people receive cancer diagnosis and treatments safely, with £10 million of additional funding allocated to support cancer waiting time improvements this year and last, as well as a commitment to expand on our pilot Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres.

GPs surgeries are now getting back to providing more face to face appointments, but we want them to increase face-to-face appointments as part of a hybrid model where digital technology will continue to play a key role.

I will always be upfront about the scale of the challenge we face. Our NHS will not recover in weeks or even months, it will take years. We will invest in our workforce, take care of their wellbeing, and ensure your health and care services are very firmly on the road to recovery.