NHS Grampian was escalated to stage 3 in January and, four months later, it has been escalated to stage 4. The Government knew that the situation was bad in January, and it was told that again in March, when the health board submitted its financial plans, so why on earth did the Government wait before acting and further escalating the board’s status? Why has the Government allowed 13,500 patients in Grampian to wait for more than a year for tests or treatment? Why have both the 31-day and 62-day cancer treatment targets been missed? In the interests of patients and staff, the Government really should have acted faster.

There are seven other health boards in the escalation framework because of poor performance. That means that more than half the health boards in Scotland are failing staff and patients. Will the cabinet secretary finally heed the warnings from Audit Scotland and cut the number of health boards to improve governance arrangements?