SNP First Minister John Swinney says he will inspire a “new course” for NHS Scotland, promising patients’ experience will be “better than it is now.”

After a week which has seen his health secretary Neil Gray mired in allegations of misleading MSPs over chauffeur-driven trips to football matches, and the abandonment of his government’s flagship National Care Service plans amid a storm of protest from councils, trade unions and opposition politicians, Mr Swinney will use a speech today to shift the focus back to NHS reform.

More than a decade after the Scottish government under then health secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced plans to “shift the balance of care” from acute services to better community-based social care, Mr Swinney will once again announce its necessity, this time promising improved support for GPs and the use of digital advances to improve access to and delivery of care.