Ever since landing the taxpayer with £11,000 in iPad roaming charges, Matheson had been a lame-duck Health Secretary. The patients waiting an age for treatment and staff overworked on every shift deserved so much better than an SNP minister who has lost their trust.

Who was going to be our next Health Secretary? Enter Neil Gray – a key ally of Humza Yousaf, who ran the First Minister’s leadership campaign.

On the day Gray took over, the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed that NHS Scotland is spending more money, treating fewer patients and has failed to return to pre-Covid levels of delivery. It’s fallen behind the recovery in hospital activity in England.

Beyond the First Minister, health is perhaps the most important brief in government. I can’t count how many times my constituents have asked me: How can I see a GP? Why is it taking so long to get the cancer treatment I need? How many more months will it be before I’m seen by mental health services? Why is my gran not getting the home care she needs? Why is it so hard to find a NHS dentist now?

The equivalent of 1 in 7 Scots is on an NHS waiting list. Yesterday heralded yet another set of abysmal waits at A&E departments across the country. There are yawning gaps within the nursing workforce. Patients can’t get the care they need to return from hospital, and the Scottish Government are threatening a centralised takeover of social care that will ignore key issues.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Politics Matters