Scotland’s NHS will receive a £2 billion funding increase next year – but SNP ministers have been accused of “moving the goalposts” on a key budget pledge to eradicate NHS waiting times of more than a year.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison declared Scots will not have to wait longer than 12 months for outpatient, inpatient or day case treatments in the NHS by March 2026.

However, a similar pledge made in 2022 – when former first minister Humza Yousaf handled the health brief - pledged to make this a reality by September 2024.

The 2022 commitment committed to eradicating one year waits for outpatients in most specialties by the end of March 2023. And for inpatient appointments and day cases, the target was September 2024.

Setting out the budget on Wednesday, Ms Robison announced a record funding settlement of £21 billion for the 2025-26 financial year.

She outlined the NHS as her “biggest commitment”, with the increase of £2 billion hailed as a “record uplift”.

Medics across the NHS have welcomed the funding, which is aimed at addressing significant issues with delayed discharge in hospitals across the country.

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£200 million has been committed to tackling waiting times and improving capacity in the NHS.

Ms Robison told MSPs: “There is no public service more important and there is no budget that has delivered a bigger vote of confidence in the NHS than this budget.”

However, she drew criticism from the Scottish Tories as she said: “By March 2026, no one will wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.”

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, health spokesman for Scottish Tories, said: “The SNP’s only vision for our NHS is rehashing old promises they have already broken.

“Trying to talk this up as a new pledge is some shameless spin from the Nationalists, who are out of ideas when it comes to tackling the permanent crisis in our NHS.

“This latest moving of goalposts will be of cold comfort to the one in six Scots who are suffering on NHS waiting lists right now.

“17 years of gross mismanagement from the SNP has left the NHS fighting for its life.

“Neil Gray should ditch his current approach, which won’t work, and instead back our common sense plans to cut bureaucracy and deliver more investment into frontline care, to help cut waiting lists far quicker than the SNP plan to.”

Dr Conor Maguire, vice president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said: “The College notes the Cabinet Secretary for Finance’s funding announcement for tackling delayed discharges, something we have called for over recent years and which we recently wrote to the First Minister about.

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“However, we await further details as to exactly how much funding will go towards reducing delayed discharges in the budget.

“We also called for further investment in social care, and we note the funding commitment on this in the budget.

“We hope that the Scottish Government takes care to spend any additional funding available in a targeted way, so that the services that require support, get the support they need.

“We note the commitment to ensure that by March 2026, nobody will wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.

“While this is a welcome announcement, 12 months still represents a long time to wait and if we are to match this ambitious target and ideally do even better, then strong policies on recruitment and retention – which includes valuing our hard working healthcare workers - will be essential.”

Other health announcements include £2.2 billion for primary case services, a 7/9% increase, while £3 million was announced to create additional dental training places.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “These measures are key in driving forward our vision of a Scotland where people live longer, healthier and fulfilling lives. The funding outlined will support NHS reform and our efforts to improve population health with a focus on prevention and early intervention.

“We want to make progress on improving our NHS, but to do that, Parliament must approve our Budget Bill to unlock investment to drive long-term and lasting improvements – and the healthier population - that we all want to see.”