NHS spending way up - but patient care falls short

By TOM GORDON, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 20:19, 11 August 2026 | Updated: 20:24, 11 August 2026 Real-terms spending on the Scottish health service has soared by a quarter in the last decade, new figures show, but patient care continues to fall short. A report on NHS costs showed SNP ministers pumped £18.2billion into the service in 2024/25, up 25.5 per cent since 2014/15, even after adjusting for inflation. Just over half the money went on a £9.6billion wage bill, a proportion that has been rising year-on-year because of more staff hiring and generous above-inflation pay hikes. The spending breakdown also revealed the SNP is on track to miss a key promise to boost mental health support for vulnerable children and young people. The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) said it was now ‘impossible’ for the SNP to hit its manifesto promise to spend 1 per cent of the NHS budget on the issue. A vow to raise total mental health spend in the last parliament to 10 per cent of the budget also appeared ‘unlikely to have been met’ because of slow progress to date, it said. Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘The SNP cannot keep throwing more money at our health service without also tackling the waste and mismanagement that stops it reaching frontline care. ‘Billions more for Scotland’s NHS hasn’t stopped patients facing record waiting times and struggling to access vital services. ‘SNP ministers must start focusing on delivering better outcomes for patients, and not simply think bigger budgets are always the answer.’ John Swinney claimed in the Holyrood election the health service had ‘turned a corner’. Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said the SNP can't keep 'throwing money' at the health service Waiting lists for outpatient appointments and inpatient and day care are creeping up despite more money being spent on the NHS But waiting lists for outpatient appointments and inpatient and day care are creeping up again after a brief improvement. Numbers of delayed discharge patients were the worst for any June on record this year, despite the SNP promising to abolish the problem in 2015. And A&E waiting time performance in summer is now as bad as it used to be in winter. Health service operating costs rose by £1billion in cash to more than £18billion in 2024/25, a real-terms increase of 2.6 per cent. Of this, £10.4billion was spent running hospitals, up 3.1 per cent in real-terms, and £3.9billion on community services (up 2.1 per cent), such as home visits and screening. Combined staff costs for hospital and community care were ‘52.6 per cent of total operating costs’, up from 47.6 per cent in 2017/18. The report said pay costs had been ‘increasing every year due to increasing numbers of staff, and also larger annual pay awards in recent years in response to general inflation’. The SNP Holyrood manifesto in 2021 said mental health was ‘a priority, with a particular focus on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)’. The party said it would ensure ‘that by the end of the parliament, 10 per cent of our frontline NHS budget will be invested in mental health services’ and ‘at least 1 per cent’ in CAMHS. But although CAMHS spending rose from £12.5million to £146.5million in 2024/25, it accounted for just 0.84 per cent of the NHS budget, up from 0.81 per cent in 2023/24. ‘Given the scale of the remaining gap, it is now impossible to see how the 1 per cent target is to be achieved in 2025/26’, the SCSC said. It also appears the SNP will miss a target set for spending on child mental health Total mental health spending rose £60million to £1.6billion in 2024/25, but was just 9.14 per cent of the NHS budget, up from 9.03 the previous year, making the 10 per cent target ‘unlikely to have been met’ by the end of the parliament. A spokesman for the SCSC said: ‘These targets matter. They reflect the scale of investment needed to address Scotland’s growing mental health challenges and ensure that children and young people can access the support they need, when they need it.’ Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘The scale on which the SNP are breaking this promise to children and young people is truly scandalous.’ Scottish Labour deputy Dame Jackie Baillie added: ‘Under the SNP record sums of money are being spent on our NHS while services plummet to record lows. ‘The SNP must get a grip of the crisis in our NHS, start treating public money with respect and set out a real plan to deliver the service patients deserve.’ Reform UK MSP Helen McDade said: ‘The increase in staff costs is sadly not reflected in improvements in patient satisfaction. It is due to the SNP government consistently collapsing under union pressure to avoid strike action and giving too generous pay increases. This bloating of the budget is unsustainable.’ Mental Wellbeing minister Maree Todd said the Government was ‘making good progress’ towards meetings its mental health and CAMHS targets, with final figures due in 2027. She said: ‘We have increased CAMHS staffing by 51.6 per cent over the last decade. This investment is making a real difference to children and young people across the country.’