Our Politics newsletter is now daily. Join thousands of others and get the latest Scottish politics news sent straight to your inbox. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

NICOLA STURGEON will today unveil an eye-catching £200million plan to improve medical care for the elderly in Scotland.

The First Minister will use her keynote speech at the SNP conference to reveal five new centres will be built across the country to specialise in operations such as hip or knee replacements and cataract removal.

The pitch to the elderly will come as Sturgeon launches as presidential-style campaign, based on her own personal popularity, to convince Scots to back the SNP at next year’s Holyrood election.

Elderly voters backed the SNP in large numbers in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections but mostly voted No in last year’s independence referendum.

Sturgeon will acknowledge that Scotland’s rapidly ageing population is likely to cause problems for the NHS in the years ahead.

She will say: “Something I hear time and again from my older constituents is how a hip or knee replacement or a cataract operation has given them a new lease of life. These operations make a real difference.

“But as more people live longer into old age, more and more of these operations will need to be done.

“If we don’t prepare now for 10 or 20 years ahead, our NHS will be overwhelmed by demand. So we will act.”

The new scheme, which it is hoped will drive down NHS waiting times, will be based on the successful specialist centre for elective treatments at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank.

More health news

The Golden Jubilee will be extended and new centres built at St John’s in Livingston, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital, Raigmore in Inverness and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

“That’s the SNP in action,” Sturgeon will say. “Real action from your SNP government, making our NHS fit for the future.”

The £200million will be invested over the five years of the next Holyrood term, with all the centres built by 2021.

Sturgeon will use her speech at the SNP’s biggest ever conference to make

a direct Holyrood election pitch to voters based on her own high trust ratings.

But she will also show humility, despite the dramatic success the SNP have enjoyed in her first year in charge. She will say: “Over these next few months – as we prepare to seek re-election – I won’t pretend that we are perfect, or that I am perfect.

“But I will promise this – we will always strive to be the best that we can be.

“And we will serve this country with imagination, courage, humility, and always to the very best of our abilities.”

Talk about the SNP’s upcoming manifesto has been dominated by speculation over a second referendum and when it might happen.

But Sturgeon will ask voters to concentrate instead on her talents as First Minister.

She will say: “Our manifesto will rise to the challenges of the future, but the choice at any election is about more than individual policies.

“It’s about who you trust most, as your Government and First Minister, to provide the experience, leadership, ambition,

character and unity of purpose to lead this country forward with confidence.

“To the people of Scotland I ask this: trust us – trust me – to always do the best for you, for your family and for your community. And trust the SNP to always be stronger for Scotland.”

Sturgeon will reaffirm the SNP’s commitment to campaigning for a vote to stay in the European Union and oppose military intervention in Syria.

She will question whether the RAF joining strikes on Syria would bring the “multi-layered conflict” any closer to an end. And she will warn: “The risk is that they will simply add to the already unimaginable suffering.”