The SNP has been accused of putting "headlines before healthcare" after spending almost £2 million on NHS "spin doctors".
The Scottish Government spent £1.9m on press or communication support for the health and social care sector in 2023-24.
This included the hiring of 29.4 full-time equivalent staff who were tasked with dealing with media inquiries or writing up press releases.
The Scottish Government said clear messaging allows the NHS to promote "better health" and allow people to have an improved understanding of key public services.
The SNP has been accused of putting "headlines before healthcare" after spending almost £2 million on NHS "spin doctors".
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But Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman, said the money could have been used to recruit 64 nurses.
The criticism comes amid spiralling NHS waiting lists, with figures showing that waiting lists in Scotland are as much as 24 times higher than in England.
NHS Scotland data showed 1,587 patients had been waiting at least 156 weeks for either an inpatient or day care procedure.
Statistics from Public Health Scotland, published in December last year, showed that 17,761 people in Scotland had been waiting 18 months or more for treatment.
Despite England's population being ten times that of Scotland, England had 13,164 patients who had been waiting 18 months or more.
Baillie said: "The facts are clear for all to see – Scotland’s NHS is in crisis and the SNP Government is putting headlines before healthcare.
But Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman, said the money could have been used to recruit 64 nurses
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"With every major infrastructure project cancelled due to SNP financial incompetence and over 4,000 nursing and midwifery posts unfilled, people will be shocked to know this SNP Government is spending almost £2 million of public money to defend their disastrous stewardship of our NHS.
“This money could be used to pay for scores of frontline nurses – instead it is spent on spin doctors.
"The people of Scotland should not pay the price of SNP spin. Only Scottish Labour has a plan to bring down waiting lists, slash red tape and empower NHS workers.”
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But a Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are investing more than £19.5 billion in health and social care services, with NHS staffing levels at a record high – 186,347 staff were employed as of December 2023 and nursing and midwifery numbers are up 17.8 per cent since September 2006 – from 10,100.4 whole-time equivalent (WTE) to 66,883.6 WTE.
"Effective communication to help people understand policies and access public services, or to prompt behaviour change and promote better health, is a key part of government work. "Communications professionals working on areas related to health and social care perform a variety of roles.
"These include managing campaigns to communicate important public health information, delivering a high-quality response service to meet round-the-clock demands of news organisations, assisting journalists and facilitating interviews that help hold ministers to account."
