I take the opportunity to welcome the election of a new United Kingdom Labour Government and to congratulate Keir Starmer on becoming Prime Minister. I am sure that all members in the chamber will want to congratulate all of Scotland’s MPs, new or returning, regardless of their party, who have been elected to represent and deliver for the people of Scotland.

Yesterday, the First Minister outlined his programme for government—a statement with no vision, no strategy and no plan. Nowhere was that more glaring than it was for our national health service. On the Government’s watch, more than 864,000 Scots are on an NHS waiting list, which is one in six people across the country. The two previous First Ministers promised a catch-up plan and things got worse, but this First Minister did not even mention it. Unbelievably, despite growing demand and lengthening waiting lists, our NHS is performing 50,000 fewer operations a year than it did before the pandemic.

By what date does John Swinney expect patients to receive the standard of care that they deserve and that they are legally entitled to?

I echo Anas Sarwar’s words of welcome for Keir Starmer as the new Prime Minister. The Prime Minister telephoned me on the day of his election and he came to see me on the Sunday after the election. I very much welcome the efforts that the Prime Minister has made to create a better relationship between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government—[ Interruption .] Frankly, it couldnae have been any worse than it was before, but I acknowledge that effort. There have been a series of other engagements, and on some of the really significant issues that both Governments are wrestling with, there has been deep engagement, which I welcome. The Scottish Government will engage in all of that activity.

We face significant challenges in the NHS, as Mr Sarwar knows. The programme for government set out a range of interventions that we are making—this is where Mr Sarwar was incorrect in his question—to reduce waiting times in the NHS, expand the capacity for undertaking treatment and improve performance in a number of key areas, particularly diagnostic information. I put on the record yesterday information about cancer diagnosis, which is significant in improving the outcomes for individuals in Scotland.

We are working very hard to overcome the waiting lists that have been created as a consequence of Covid, and the health service is being resourced to enable it to do so.

I thank the First Minister for that answer, but I do not think that he understands that waiting lists are actually getting longer. Let us take a single example. Mark Rodgers is a former footballer. Mark has had prostate problems for years. In April, he was told that he needed urgent surgery, and he has been using a catheter for five months when it was only meant to be for weeks. He is in unbearable pain and has been having suicidal thoughts. Despite being told that his treatment is urgent, he has been told that he could have to wait for over another year. He said:

“I’m in constant threat of the life-threatening side effects and potential organ damage ... I haven’t acted on my suicidal thoughts, but I’m terrified where depression is leading me.”

NHS Lothian has confirmed that it will not meet the treatment time guarantee for Mark and has apologised. However, saying sorry does not cut waiting lists, so when will the Government stop failing Mark and the thousands of patients like him?

First, I am sorry about the detail that Mr Sarwar puts on the record on behalf of Mark Rodgers. If Mr Sarwar wishes to pass particular details to me, I will explore the case and determine whether anything more can be done to support the treatment of Mr Rodgers.

It is important to put on record the fact that we are still dealing with the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. We are resourcing the health service to a greater degree than would have been possible had we simply replicated the financial settlement from the United Kingdom Government. That has come about as a consequence of the decisions that the Government in Scotland has taken about taxation. We have asked those on higher incomes to contribute slightly more in taxes and we have invested a large proportion of that amount in the national health service.

I give Mr Sarwar the assurance that the Government will continue to invest in the national health service to expand capacity. We are trying to deliver the treatment that individuals require as timeously as possible. There are many examples of that happening, but I accept—and Mr Sarwar has put such a case on the record—that there will be cases in which that has not happened. I will endeavour to do all that I can to resolve those issues on behalf of Mr Rodgers and patients like him.

The frustrating thing is that, week after week, the First Minister says sorry. Week after week, those sorrys do not cut waiting lists and people are still failed by the Government.

Mark is just one example among thousands of examples right across our NHS, which is in crisis. The statistics are so bad and the stories of patient failure are so regular that it feels as though the Government has become desensitised to the crisis. Some 37,000 Scots who are now on a waiting list for an operation have already waited for more than a year. Right now, almost 5,000 children are waiting for mental health care. Thousands of families have already been forced to empty their savings or borrow money to pay for private care, all while the NHS carries out 50,000 fewer operations a year.

Can the First Minister not see that behind every one of those cases is a patient in pain, an anxious family and a workforce at breaking point, and that we need a Government in Scotland that is serious about saving our NHS so that it is there for people when they need it?

I reassure Mr Sarwar that nobody in the Government—certainly not me and certainly not the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care—is desensitised to the scale of the challenge. We are very much focused on improving the performance of the national health service.

One of the examples that Mr Sarwar cited was children’s access to mental health services. Stronger performance is being delivered there, and I welcome that. That has come about because of the commitment and dedication of staff and the ability to expand the capacity to do that work.

We are taking steps to improve capacity in the health service. On cancer, for example, there is strong performance in terms of the median waits for individuals to receive treatment. Obviously, there will be people who wait longer—I accept that—but we are trying to reduce those waiting times as quickly as we possibly can. Doing so will remain the focus of policy making and decision making in the Scottish Government, and it commands the full attention of the health secretary and myself.