“£84.9 million for NHS Orkney – an increase of 13.4%.” – Robert Leslie

Orkney SNP candidate Robert Leslie has said that the SNP’s relentless focus on Scotland’s NHS is delivering results for people here in Orkney. It comes after the SNP Government’s budget for 2026/27 was passed by MSPs, delivering record funding of £22.5billion for the NHS and social care, including £84.9 million for NHS Orkney – an increase…

theorkneynews

March 7, 2026

2–3 minutes

NHS Orkney, NHS Scotland, Robert Leslie, Scottish Government, SNP

Orkney SNP candidate Robert Leslie has said that the SNP’s relentless focus on Scotland’s NHS is delivering results for people here in Orkney.

It comes after the SNP Government’s budget for 2026/27 was passed by MSPs, delivering record funding of £22.5billion for the NHS and social care, including £84.9 million for NHS Orkney – an increase of 13.4%.

The new NHS budget also contains £2.4 billion for primary care, including £36 million for new walk-in GP services, with the first launched in Edinburgh last month and a further 15 to follow this year across the country.

Robert Leslie still has hopes that a walk-in services will come to Orkney, after he put the case to Health Secretary Neil Gray recently.

Funding will also help enable the expansion of the number of Hospital at Home beds to at least 2,000 across Scotland by the end of 2026.

Latest figures show that the SNP’s NHS plan is working with statistics last week showing that long waiting times have now fallen for eight months in a row, GP numbers are going up, and figures out today show an increase in the number of NHS operations performedand sustained improvements in mental health care for children and young people.

Commenting Robert Leslie said:

“In recent years our NHS has been pushed to its limit – all of us have felt that – but the SNP Scottish Government’s relentless focus is starting to see results with waiting times falling, operation numbers up and GP numbers far higher than south of the border – we must stay the course amid the chaos coming from Westminster.

“The SNP has delivered a budget with record funding for our NHS of £17.6 billion for frontline services including £84.9 million for NHS Orkney.

“There is an additional £2.4 billion for primary care, including £36 million for 16 new GP walk-in clinics.

“Of course there is still much work to be done, but under John Swinney’s strong leadership the SNP is fully focused on ensuring that folk in Orkney can get the medical treatment they need, when they need it – that’s what you get with an SNP government firmly on Scotland’s side.”

Elections to The Scottish Parliament take place on Thursday 7 May. Robert Leslie is the SNP candidate for the Orkney constituency.