Anas Sarwar ‘will declare waiting times emergency’ if he becomes first minister

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has pledged to do “whatever it takes” to tackle the “waiting times emergency” in the NHS.

With hundreds of thousands of Scots currently on an NHS waiting list, Mr Sarwar will promise that a Labour government will “use every tool available to ensure people get the care they need”.

This could see patients being treated in other parts of the country – or even in other parts of the UK – as well as the NHS using the private sector for operations.

With fewer procedures being carried out by the NHS than prior to the Covid pandemic, Labour is unveiling plans to change the way health boards in Scotland are funded.

The party wants to “incentivise” NHS boards to improve performance levels, saying if it wins the 2026 Holyrood elections it will introduce a new funding model where the amount that is paid is based on the amount of care delivered.

The Scottish Labour leader will speak out about the plans as he addresses his party’s conference in Glasgow on Friday.

Ahead of the three-day gathering Labour has announced a raft of new policies as it seeks to counter its dwindling performance in the opinion polls.

Labour said its plans for the NHS will put patients first, as it noted official figures showing there were 284,965 operations carried out by the service in Scotland in 2024 – down from the total of 334,563 that was recorded in 2019.

Meanwhile Public Health Scotland data showed that as of September 30 last year there were 636,238 individuals waiting either for an outpatient appointment or for hospital treatment – the equivalent of one in nine people in Scotland.

Mr Sarwar declared: “Our NHS is in crisis. Despite having more resources and more staff, Scotland’s health service is delivering fewer operations and fewer treatments than before.

“Vital capacity is going unused, and 50,000 fewer operations are being scheduled every year – that cannot continue.”

Under the current model he said that “a patient in Glasgow could be forced to wait a year for treatment when they could be seen within weeks in Tayside”.

Insisting this “cannot continue”, the Scottish Labour leader added: “This is a national emergency, and we will use every tool available to ensure people get the care they need when they need it.

“Under our plans, patients will come first – not outdated systems or managerial red tape.

“To deal with this national emergency we will use capacity wherever it is – even if it means travelling to other parts of the country or using private sector capacity to cut waiting times and save lives.

“As first minister, I will declare a waiting times emergency, rip up bureaucracy and do whatever it takes to fix our NHS.”

Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray however insisted that “waiting lists and waiting times will come down over this coming year, thanks to the choices the SNP is making in government”.

Mr Gray said: “If Labour was serious about action on the NHS, they could have made proposals during the Budget process.

“Not only did they fail to do so, they won’t be backing the record investment in the NHS this government is delivering.

“Labour are also making this claim just as the data shows that the Scottish Government’s plan to improve waiting times is delivering.”

Mr Gray added: “We know there is more work to do – but we have a clear plan to drive more improvements, whereas Labour have nothing but empty rhetoric which people just won’t take seriously.”

Meanwhile SNP 2026 election campaign director Angus Robertson said: “Ahead of his conference, Anas Sarwar is under real pressure – he has broken promise after promise and shown himself completely incapable of standing up to Keir Starmer’s government, which treats Scotland as an afterthought.

“With their poll ratings plummeting, it would be no surprise to see MSPs and conference delegates demanding a new direction in the Labour leadership.

“And while Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer flail from disaster to disaster, under John Swinney’s leadership the SNP is resolutely focused on the issues that matter to the people of Scotland – investing in and improving our NHS, taking action to tackle the cost of living by bringing back universal winter heating support and supporting jobs and economic growth.”