Just yesterday, the First Minister promised women more support from pregnancy through birth, yet, in the past few weeks, my office has been inundated with emails from distressed midwifery graduates and newly qualified paediatric nurses who are unable to get jobs.

Workforce planning needs to deliver safe staffing levels, yet hundreds of midwives and paediatric nurses are unemployed this year when we know that there are serious staff shortages. At least £12 million has been spent on their training, but cuts and vacancy freezes mean that they do not have jobs. Existing staff are burnt out and are leaving, patient outcomes are worse and the Government is in breach of its own legislation on safe staffing.

Is this yet another case of Scottish National Party financial incompetence, with the First Minister’s words yesterday just empty rhetoric, or will he act to ensure that these nurses fill the vacancies that we know exist in midwifery and paediatrics?