Readers' Letters: Claims that Scottish NHS is best of four nations need examining

Should Neil Gray’s limo rides to football games be ignored because the Scottish NHS is, as some readers claim, a top performer?

In his bid to defend Neil Gray of limo notoriety, Fraser Grant (Letters, 18 November) trots out the usual SNP claim of Scotland having the “best-performing health service in the UK”, because there have been (so far) “no strikes by medical staff and no pharmacies closing”. This claim is based on spurious measures and no evidence at all.

In a book review in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Rudolf Klein notes that health spending in Scotland is 20-25 per cent higher than in England and asks if more money means better results. He concludes that “higher spending has not produced a healthier population”. He judges that “extra billions flowing into the NHS will not produce automatic proportional benefits to its users (as distinct from its staff)”.

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Now, Times health journalist Helen Puttick tells us experts warn “Scotland could become the first UK nation where the NHS collapses and the quality of healthcare increasingly depends on what patients can afford”. Problems include the SNHS continuing to depend too much on paper and snail mail whereas the English NHS has a multifaceted phone app. The number of patients waiting over a year for planned treatment is rising in Scotland and falling in England. While Wes Streeting acts and Lord Darzi reports in record time, Neil Gray announces a “national conversation” and “citizen engagement”, which merely delay action. The SNHS is awash with “strategy documents” but short on implementation.

Scotland's NHS is under the microscope (Picture: Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images)Scotland's NHS is under the microscope (Picture: Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images)
Scotland's NHS is under the microscope (Picture: Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images)

Perhaps if Neil Gray attended fewer football games he might expedite measures that address the very real problems in the SNHS.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Spare the chauffeur

I admit to being mystified by the apology by Health Secretary Neil Gray for using the services of a chauffeur-driven limousine for only one football team, namely Aberdeen, the one he supports. I really hope he doesn't increase his chauffeur's workload.

Sadly, for far too many MSPs, not to say also MPs, their heads are turned by the temptation provided by their newfound financial privileges and perks. Apparently, Neil Gray has not broken any rules, but significantly he conceded he had given the impression of “acting more as a fan and less as a minister”, all at the taxpayer's expense.

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Surely, with his generous salary plus parliamentary expenses, Neil Gray earns more than enough to pay his own way into Pittodrie and Hampden, not to mention other grounds around the country. I can but hope he was chauffeur driven to the recent cup tie at Hampden when Aberdeen were soundly beaten 6-0 by Celtic. Along with Aberdeen that day, we taxpayers also lost.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Unconvinced

Not only did Neil Gray abuse the privilege of having transport available at the taxpayers’ expense to take him to football matches but he now owns up to having a guest with him. To make matters worse we are expected to believe that his trips to watch Aberdeen and Scotland games were “official business”.

I wonder how someone who has to wait in pain for hours for an ambulance to appear feels about the Health Secretary having a private limousine at his disposal for his jollies to the football. The SNP “Government” continues to abuse taxpayers’ money and, as always, shows no shame in doing so.

Ian Balloch, Grangemouth, Falkirk

Danger road

Regarding The Scotsman’s series on the A9, the A9 bisects the communities of Birnam, Dunkeld, Dalguise and Strathbraan and is an essential main road corridor linking north and south Scotland. Within 4.6 miles between Pass of Birnam and Tay crossing there are eight junctions. These sections of the road are a significant cause of distress, delays,diversions, damage (human and vehicular) and, sadly, deaths.

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We endorse the effort to dual the A9 but even the most optimistic schedule for the dualling of our section is 2032 – a further eight years of this high risk situation is unacceptable. Safety rather than speed is the main objective. Maintaining effective transport and travel but enabling communities to travel safely within our area. Resources and creative thinking are required to make this single track section with the multiple junctions safer.

Dunkeld, Birnam, Dalguise and Crieff/Inver urgently need better lighting, road markings, visible bollards and speed restrictions for all vehicles.

David E Bee, (Dunkeld & Birnam Junctions Action Group), Birnam, Perth and Kinross

Big targets

On Saturday Russia rained down 120 missiles and 90 drones onto power stations and power infrastructure in the Ukraine. The UK is not at war with Russia but we do find the politics of that country somewhat unpredictable and if the West ever came to blows with the Soviet Union, our power stations would probably suffer first.

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Sadly and unthinkingly, our government seems intent on building larger and fewer power stations. Surely those would be easier targets for an enemy. For our own future safety, we should be building more, but smaller, power stations, naturally linked to each other by suitable cabling,

We might even consider that those smaller power units should be shore-based because we are, after all, an island nation and regular power could be produced by the tides and linked more directly with the cities which have most to gain by such an arrangement.

Archibald A Lawrie, Kingskettle, Fife

Role model

Although not much reported here in Scotland, there is a general election in progress in neighbouring Ireland. The Irish Times editorial on Wednesday opened with the following statement: “Ireland’s public finances are in rude good health. The budget is in surplus, spending is increasing and cash is being set aside in two new funds. The State has had the wind at its back in economic terms since the middle of the last decade to an extraordinary degree.”

Just take a minute to let that statement of firmly established economic prosperity in Ireland (a country with a similar population and resource base as Scotland) sink in, and then compare it with our own desperate search for economic growth and public spending/tax rises as the main theme in the recent UK general election.

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In terms of highlighting Scotland’s current impoverished status (economically and politically), no further comment is required.

D Jamieson, Dunbar, East Lothian

Have courage

Since London and the South East is now beginning to suffer financially, I welcome the recent straight words from the Bank of England governor. This senior and independent figure reminds all Westminster politicians that Brexit (a word hardly mentioned) has “markably” affected the UK economy. He further urged the UK Government to establish a new trading regime with the EU. Both Tories and Labour have effectively ignored Europe, without first being able to open up greater trading links with America and the fading Commonwealth.

People of Scotland who voted to remain in the EU, have the courage and confidence to take control of your richly endowed country. Look no further than the Republic of Ireland, once a poor part of imperial Britain, now a vibrant and successful nation in the large European open market and with a voice in world affairs.

Grant Frazer, Newtonmore, Highland

Extra help?

News that Rachel Reeves has edited her LinkedIn profile to replace the claim that she spent three years at the Halifax as an economist with one that she worked in “retail banking” raises difficult questions, starting with: Was she picked as Shadow Chancellor and then Chancellor on the basis of a false CV?

Otto Inglis, Crossgates, Fife

Tragic lesson

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The photograph accompanying Margaret Neighbour’s excellent, hard-hitting column says everything about the horror of war (15 November). Two children stand looking at the devastation of the refugee camp which should have been a safe place for civilians, but they have learnt that nowhere is safe anymore. Human Rights Watch is right to call Israel’s forced evacuation of hundreds of people “ethnic cleansing”. We may soon be witnessing the horrific results of a famine, as aid groups have warned. This is the 21st century, but the situation in the Gaza Strip reminds us that humans are still the most dangerous species on the planet.

I pity those children. They have learnt a horrific lesson about human nature, at such a young age. Israel’s excuse that they do not deliberately target civilians is ludicrous, for obvious reasons. If they kill Hamas militants who are hiding amongst civilians, it’s obvious that innocent people will also die. The Palestinian militants who killed around 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, are also guilty as charged.

Carolyn Taylor, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

Still the King

Yesterday’s page 13 article “Fans left fuming as sold-out Usher Hall gig is abandoned” claiming the King Creosote concert “descended into chaos” was misleading. David Pollock’s page 24 review gives a far better picture of the event, stating “The crowd rose in ovation as the band departed early”. I, and I’m sure the vast majority of fans, can’t wait for the rescheduled gig.

Ian Macdonald, Edinburgh

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