NICOLA Sturgeon has said the health service in Scotland is "performing better" than health services are in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The First Minister said the NHS in Scotland is doing better at addressing the challenges faced by the health sector throughout the UK.
She said: "I'm not sitting here saying it's job done in Scotland or that we are meeting those targets, the point I'm making is that we are making more progress in terms of building the capacity, doing the reforms in our health service that is required."
On her suggestions that a fresh referendum on Brexit would be held before a second vote on Scottish independence, Sturgeon said: "I'm not conceding it, look this is not a big concession if people had been paying attention to what we've said, this purely on a timing thing."
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She told Today: "The timing of a Brexit referendum is not entirely down to my decision making."
On supporting any possible Labour government, the SNP leader said: "We would offer support to a minority Labour government, the conditions for that we've set out very clearly in our manifesto ... an end to austerity, an end to the welfare cuts that have caused so much misery, to so many people and, yes, respect for the principle that the question of whether there should be an independence referendum and the timing of that should be decided by the Scottish Parliament elected by the Scottish people and not dictated by Westminster.
"My proposition to the Scottish Parliament is that that should be next year and that's the issue of principle ... I don't expect Labour to support independence or even support there being a second independence referendum, but I would expect them to accept that that decision should be for the Scottish Parliament not for Westminster."
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