NICOLA Sturgeon will today pledge a major drive to ready the NHS for an older population as she sets out her pitch to win the next Holyrood election.

The First Minister will unveil plans for a £200million investment to expand the Golden Jubilee hospital at Clydebank and create a string of new centres around Scotland specialising in hip, knee and cataract operations.

The pledge, designed to equip the NHS for a steep rise in the number of people aged over 70, will be accompanied by a highly personal plea to "trust me" to lead the country into the next decade.

Ms Sturgeon will use her keynote speech at the SNP conference in Aberdeen to fire the starting gun on May's Scottish Parliament election.

The Nationalists will make the same appeal to voters as four years ago, when they campaigned on their "team, record and vision".

Ms Sturgeon, whose personal popularity ratings far outstrip her rivals', will be at the centre of a campaign designed to increase the SNP's overall majority after nine years in power.

Looking ahead to the poll, she will reach beyond her audience of 4700 supporters to tell Scots: "Over these next few months as we prepare to seek re-election I won't pretend that we are perfect, or that I'm perfect.

"But I will promise this: we will always strive to be the best that we can be.

"To the people of Scotland I ask this. Trust us, trust me, to always do the best for you, for your family and for your community."

To underline her determination to reform public services in the years after 2016, Ms Sturgeon will announce a major scheme to relieve pressure on emergency hospitals by creating extra capacity for routine operations.

Under the plan, the Golden Jubilee hospital, which is run as a national waiting times centre, will receive a £50million investment.

New centres will also be created at St John's Hospital, Livingston, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Ninewells in Dundee, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the Raigmore in Inverness.

The move will help ready the NHS for an expected 50 per rise in the number of over-70s by 2037.

"If we don't prepare now for 10 and 20 years ahead, our NHS will be overwhelmed by the demand," Ms Sturgeon will say.

"Our manifesto will rise to the challenges of the future."

Ms Sturgeon will also use her speech to rule out SNP support for possible airstrikes on Syria, reinforcing a conference resolution tabled by the party's foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond.

She will reiterate the Scottish Government's willingness to "play a full part" in the resettlement of refugees displaced by the bloody civil war.

But she will add: "What we should certainly not do in Syria is make matters even worse.

"The motivation for UK military action appears to be based on a need to do something, rather than any real consideration of whether the action proposed will make a positive difference."

She will say that airstrikes by the US, Russia and other powers have failed to resolve the conflict and argue: "What is needed is not more bombing but a renewed and intensive diplomatic initiative led by the UN."

She will add: "At a time when sovereign countries need to work together to resolve issues of such magnitude, the prospect of UK withdrawal from the EU seems even more misguided."

However, the main focus of her speech will be the SNP's bid to win an unprecedented third term in power next May.

Her plea to "trust us" mirrors comments by John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, who used his speech to frame the election as a choice between the SNP and an "untrusted" Labour.

He acknowledged economic problems, including rising unemployment, but added: "At the election in May, people can entrust these challenges to the SNP or they can gamble with the untried, untrusted and divided Labour Party.

"Our task is to persuade the people of Scotland that the one, the only party to entrust these challenges to is Scotland's party, the SNP."

To underline the Scottish Government's efforts to boost the economy he announced immediate plans to give local authorities the power to cut business rates.