The NHS is ‘not financially sustainable’ and remains on an ’emergency footing’, according to Scotland’s spending watchdog.

In a new report, Audit Scotland explained that rising spending on the health service was “unsustainable”.

And it warned that in responding to variants of Covid-19, a growing backlog of patients waiting longer for treatment had been created.

The backlog poses a “significant risk” to the Scottish Government’s recovery plans, the watchdog indicated.

Improving the NHS against the competing demands of the pandemic, as well as an increasing number of policy initiatives such as plans for a National Care Strategy, will also be “very difficult”, the report found.

In its financial assessment of the health service, Audit Scotland stated that the NHS was “not financially sustainable” before the pandemic, and that responding to the pandemic has increased those pressures.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Economic Matters

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