CUTTING Scotland’s long NHS waiting lists will be his government’s “lasting legacy,” said John Swinney today.

The First Minister made the claim amid an ongoing crisis in outpatient and A&E waits, which led Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie to claim last week that “ministers still do not have a meaningful plan to get to grips with the crisis facing our NHS.”

Seeking to turn that around with the announcement of a £90 million package of support for NHS boards to increase capacity and tackle the waits, Mr Swinney appeared confident the SNP’s manifesto pledge to “eradicate” year-long waits would be met within months.

“Over the past year we have seen long waits falling with new outpatient waits over 52 weeks reducing for 12 months in a row,” he said.

“The direction of travel is positive, but there is more work to do — I am determined that ending long waits for NHS treatment will be my government’s lasting legacy.

“I have been clear with health boards that I will expect to see month-on-month reductions on the back of this new investment.”