Good news at last on the NHS

Published on Tuesday 26 February 2008 20:01

OVER the years, as NHS waiting lists lengthened, the media has trumpeted each failure, frequently demanding the political scalp of whatever health minister was in the job at the time. Sometimes, the politician was deserving of criticism. At others, able ministers have worked hard to bring a gigantic NHS bureaucracy under control but were still the fall guys when that monster failed to deliver.

It is, of course, the job of the media to call politicians to account. However, it is only fair that when things go well, the press should be willing to report the good news. So it is in this spirit that we are able to report that NHS waiting lists in Scotland are now at an all-time low. Figures published yesterday show that no patient waited more than 18 weeks for a first outpatient consultation, or for hospital inpatient treatment.

Congratulations are due to the current health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, and to the previous Labour minister, Andy Kerr, who proved more flexible and pragmatic in tackling waiting lists than his ideological predecessors. Congratulations should also go to NHS staff who did the work at the proverbial coal face.

These gains have been made through a growing willingness to serve the patient rather than the needs of the NHS bureaucracy. That is a good beginning from which to reducing waiting times even more.