SCOTTISH First Minister John Swinney has found another £25.5 million for the NHS in a bid to meet pledges to slash waiting times.

Mr Swinney committed to ending waits for treatment of more than a year in the Scottish NHS by March, but with that deadline and May’s Holyrood elections looming, the latest figures show 56,439 and 29,417 people were waiting for over a year for outpatient and inpatient appointments respectively.

He announced the extra cash to be directed at providing more appointments as he visited the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan yesterday.

Mr Swinney said: “We have already provided £110m of additional targeted funding this year to tackle the longest waits.

“Now we are providing a further boost to deliver more appointments and procedures, taking the total additional funding to £135.5m for 2025-26.

“I am determined to build on the progress being achieved by hardworking staff in our health service, like those I met today.”

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, however, urged the Scottish government to make greater use of national treatment centres to help reduce waiting times.