The NHS remains Labour’s proudest creation; yet, the truth is, it has seen better days. The Scottish NHS is struggling with a shortage of nurses and GPs, and many people are finding it impossible to book an appointment with their GP, with the next available slot often only in a few weeks’ time. Through our plan to build a Future For All, Scottish Labour is determined to change this.

Your GP is your first port of call within the healthcare system, so it is important that you can book an appointment with your GP soon after you need one. Scottish Labour will set a target of everyone being able to get an appointment with their GP within a week of them phoning up, and we will make the necessary investments into the NHS to enable this: we will embark on an ambitious recruitment drive for doctors, with an aim to recruit a thousand new GPs within the next six years.

However, this ambitious recruitment drive will only work if medical students think that working as a GP is attractive; and we can only ensure that Scotland has enough nurses if working as a nurse within the NHS is a sufficiently attractive career prospect, as opposed to working abroad or in the private sector. This is why Scottish Labour will ensure that doctors and nurses are paid a fair salary which reflects the crucial work they do for our country. This is why we will invest in a new, specialist mental health service for healthcare staff to ensure that they can access the support they need to deal with the stresses which a job in the healthcare sector inevitably produces.

Another way we will achieve this ambitious target is by reducing the burden on the healthcare system. Many of the cases doctors and nurses deal with are ultimately preventable; and if the NHS never had to deal with it in the first place, then they can spend more time helping patients suffering from an injury, illness or other form of poor health which was not preventable. To achieve this, we will refocus the Scottish healthcare system to be a preventative healthcare system which focuses on preventing poor health from arising in the first place, rather than on reacting to cases of poor health.

Poor health is frequently caused by poor lifestyles and factors related to people’s lifestyles, including smoking, obesity, poor diets, a lack of exercise, and other factors. However, for those living a poor lifestyle, it is often not easy to transition to a better lifestyle. The new preventative healthcare system will ensure that everyone can access the necessary support to live a healthier life, with Scottish Labour planning to draft a new anti-obesity strategy as part of our preventative healthcare efforts.

As part of the refocusing of the NHS on preventative healthcare, we will also fundamentally reorganise the NHS to break down the barriers between the different tiers of healthcare, ensuring that doctors can provide their patients more joined-up care. This is why we will reorganise the NHS along the Multi-Speciality Community Provider and the Integrated Primary And Acute Care System models.

We cannot build a Future For All without ensuring that Scotland has a healthcare system which provides all of its people with good healthcare free at the point of use, and good healthcare which they can access. This is why our manifesto outlines plans to recruit a thousand more GPs by 2030, to ensure that everyone can book an appointment with their GP within one week, and plans to refocus our healthcare system on preventative healthcare to increase our health and wellbeing. But we can only achieve this with your support this Friday at the ballot box.