Barely a fortnight passes without yet another headline about record-long waiting lists, or declining health outcomes.

It was only last week at First Minister’s Questions that I was able to challenge Humza Yousaf about reports that Scotland has some of the worst survival rates for several of the most serious forms of cancer. In fact, in a comparison of the five-year survival rates between 33 similar countries, Scotland ranks 32nd for pancreatic cancer, 31st for stomach cancer, and 29th for lung cancer.

As expected, the First Minister’s response outlined no solutions to this crisis, even if he did accept that there is ‘more work to do’ on this issue – a huge understatement which will be of little comfort to the families affected each year by these less survivable cancers.