Humza Yousaf has been called on by Labour to improve his winter plan for the struggling NHS or resign as health secretary.
The party will lead a debate on the health service at Holyrood today amid fears it faces one of the most difficult periods in its history.
Jackie Baillie, Labour's health spokeswoman, said too many Scots were left "languishing on waiting lists" as the NHS struggles to recover from the impact of the covid pandemic.
Yousaf launched his winter plan for the health service earlier this month by pledging to recruit 1,000 new staff - including 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas.
A further £124m will be given to health and social care partnerships to expand the capacity of care at home initiatives, £45m to support recruitment and planning in the Scottish Ambulance Service and extension of the Social Care Staff Support Fund to the end of March.
But Labour pointed to comments from Dr John Thomson, vice-chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland (RCEM), who warned that many parts of the plan will not be implemented in time to make a difference this winter.
Baillie said: "Scotland's AWOL Health Secretary is breaking all the records for incompetence.
"Thousands are waiting over eight hours in A&E departments every week, one in seven Scots are languishing on waiting lists and we face unprecedented industrial action across the NHS.
"Humza Yousaf's half-baked winter plan is nowhere near strong enough to deal with the crisis we are about to face.
"That's why today I am issuing an ultimatum to this failed Health Secretary - act now to support our NHS or go.
"We can't reward failure - it's time Mr Yousaf got his jotters."
Yousaf said: "Due to the accumulative impacts of the pandemic, we expect this winter to be one of the most difficult the NHS has faced.
"Through our £600m health and care plan for winter we’re looking to take on the challenges we know we face this winter. That’s why we are recruiting 1,000 new NHS staff, including 750 frontline nurses from overseas and have increased flexibility for Health Boards to retain staff."
The health secretary added: "Recovery from the pandemic will not happen overnight and in common with health services across the UK and globally, A&E departments are working under significant pressure as Covid continues to affect services.
"While Scotland’s A&E performance continues to be the best of all four nations, our performance is not where I want it to be.
"These pressure on A&E are driven in large part by delays in discharge elsewhere in hospitals, which is why a focus of our winter plan is on social care and actions to encourage integration authorities to help alleviate delays."
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