Readers' Letters: NHS challenges could lead to a robotics-enabled future

Let’s look at crisis in Scottish NHS from another angle, says reader

The latest Audit Scotland report on the NHS in Scotland paints a stark picture – escalating financial pressures, growing waiting lists and staffing shortages putting the system under immense strain. While the report rightly calls for urgent reform, it misses a transformative opportunity: the role of robotics in revolutionising healthcare delivery.

As the Audit Scotland report acknowledges, the NHS faces a perfect storm of rising costs, workforce challenges, and persistent operational issues. Yet embedded within these challenges lies the potential for a robotics-enabled future that could benefit both patients and the economy.

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The global healthcare robotics market is projected to be worth£24 billion by 2035. With strategic investment and coordinated action, Scotland could capture a significant share of this growing market while simultaneously improving our health service. Even modest efficiency gains through automation could generate millions in annual savings for the NHS to reinvest.

A visitor checks his vitals next to an AI-enabled medical robot at a Bangkok trade show (Picture: Manan Vatsyayana / AFP/ Getty)A visitor checks his vitals next to an AI-enabled medical robot at a Bangkok trade show (Picture: Manan Vatsyayana / AFP/ Getty)
A visitor checks his vitals next to an AI-enabled medical robot at a Bangkok trade show (Picture: Manan Vatsyayana / AFP/ Getty)

But the benefits extend far beyond cost savings. By positioning NHS Scotland as an “informed customer” for robotics, we could provide the secure market needed for Scottish manufacturers to scale up and innovate. This would create a virtuous cycle – as healthcare providers benefit from improved efficiency, our robotics sector gains the confidence to invest in R&D and export its expertise globally.

The foundations are already in place at the National Robotarium in Edinburgh. What's needed is a bold, coordinated strategy to make Scotland a world leader in healthcare robotics. This is an economic and social imperative the Scottish Government cannot afford to overlook. The choice – and opportunity – is ours.

Lisa Farrell, The National Robotarium, Edinburgh

Change needed

“For anyone with the ability to think” Brexit Britain is broken. All the hyperbole desperately grasped at by Alexander McKay to denigrate the SNP Scottish Government cannot divert from this fact (Letters, 3 December). While Mr McKay rails at the expense of government special advisers he conveniently ignores the billions of pounds lost to the UK and Scottish economies directly due to the disastrous consequences of Brexit.

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While Mr McKay has persistently referenced the cost of the dual-fuel ferries he has conveniently ignored the billions of pounds wasted on HS2, never mind the billions spent on two ailing aircraft carriers that still do not carry the aircraft for which they were designed.

While Mr McKay appears to have forgotten the billions spent on PPE that went up in smoke, most have not forgotten that those behind the UK Government “VIP lane” scandal have yet to be brought to justice. Yes, we should all think more deeply and look beyond the headlines (and certainly not get distracted by misspent pennies while pounds are picked from our pockets), and if we do we will see that Britain does not need Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, it needs serious constitutional change.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Who to believe?

The latest damning report from Scotland's Auditor General states that the SNP government's proposed strategy for our NHS is “a restatement of the 2020 vision and is reliant on a number of the same delivery plans” that were not delivered then.

This follows Audit Scotland's report in February which said the SNP government had “no overall vision” for the future delivery of healthcare. They go on to say that “the Scottish Government's vision for health and social care is not clear on how operational issues will be addressed or how reform will be prioritised”. The British Medical Association (BMA) has also accused the SNP of “tinkering round the edges” of the NHS rather than taking notice of repeated warnings.

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So, do we believe the BMA and Audit Scotland or Neil Gray, the SNP health secretary (the only chauffeur-driven Aberdeen fan) who says he has “a clear vision for the direction of the NHS reform” I know who I certainly do not believe.

Jim Houston, Edinburgh

NHS malaise

While the SNP and its various correspondents insist the Scottish NHS outperforms the NHS elsewhere in the UK, Scotland’s admirable Auditor General, Stephen Boyle, issues a stark warning about its prospects.

He points out that spending more money on the SNHS has been accompanied by a drop in the numbers of those treated since Covid. His view is that “difficult decisions” will need to be taken to promote greater efficiency, including about “even what it stops doing”. He tells us “the Scottish Government doesn't have a clear delivery plan to reform the NHS and reduce the pressure it’s under”. All they have is a rehash of a four-year-old plan already rejected as inadequate. Mr Boyle’s view is that what is required is “greater leadership from both the Scottish Government and NHS leaders than we have seen to date”.

A gaggle of SNP health ministers has talked the talk about the NHS for years, but its operation and prospects are only deteriorating. Many of us have had, in the past, excellent service for acute conditions, but access to treatment for the routine painful conditions that blight people’s lives has become increasingly remote. Perhaps there are indeed aspects of NHS treatment that could be, in Mr Boyle’s word, “stopped”. Perhaps the focus should be entirely on curing illness and alleviating pain. Perhaps we don’t need managers with rainbow lanyards monitoring DEI issues, or setting up an office to study ways of atoning for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s inheritance 250 years ago from a benefactor involved in the slave trade.

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Whatever the causes of the NHS malaise, a workable plan of reform is urgently needed. It is to be hoped Mr Boyle has enough clout to ensure that this will happen, but I’m not holding my breath.

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Reform on way

Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay has warned the rise of Reform will only help the SNP by splitting the vote.

Is that the best he can do? It recycles the entitlement and fear-mongering which Tories have used for over a decade. It served them well when Indyref2 was on the horizon, but its power was severely depleted in the last general election when Reform won 7 per cent of the vote, pushing the Tories into third place in a number of constituencies.

Mr Findlay assures voters he is listening and understands why they are seeking an alternative to the main parties. Again, really? If he did, he would offer more than a promise of “common sense”, a pale rhetorical imitation of what Reform in their policy pronouncements actually exemplify.

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Many people have been disappointed for years at how feeble an opposition the Scottish Conservatives have been, and there is no sign of this improving significantly under Mr Findlay's leadership.

Reform is the fastest growing political party in history in the UK and in Scotland, and the day is not far off when its Scottish membership will exceed that of the Scottish Tories. In record time Reform Party Scotland is developing a vibrant branch structure across the country, with enthusiastic activists drawn from all parties and none.

Come the Holyrood election in 17 months' time, the tables will be turned, and a vote for the Tories instead of Reform will be most likely to split the vote in favour of the SNP.

Linda Holt, Pittenweem, Fife

Truth to power

Peter MacKay has made an excellent start to his term as Scots Makar (“First Gaelic Makar Peter Mackay on his plans to use poetry to tell a new story of Scotland”, 3 December). As the first Gaelic speaker to hold this position, he has stressed the power of the multiple languages of Scotland as being the strength of a “strong and diverse nation” and not a force for “separation and division”. I like the name “makar” as opposed to “laureate”, as the steward of language, at a time we are witnessing its power for separation and division.

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Makars have a proud history of keeping the powers that be honest, using the sheer power of poetry against the prevalent world of spin. In this they stand in the proud tradition of prophets, these makars of old, who performed the much needed function, often at personal cost to themselves, of speaking the uncomfortable truths, that no one else dare utter. Hopefully, we'll listen.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Nuclear notes

Apparently, EDF Energy and the UK Government are considering extending the lifespan of ageing nuclear reactors, including two at Torness, East Lothian (your report, 2 December).

However, the key problem for all our ageing reactors is graphite depletion.

The graphite moderator in a nuclear plant slows down the fast neutrons to allow the chain reaction to continue. The problem is that irradiation damage changes the structure of graphite, and this damage degrades the core.

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As the number of cracked graphite bricks increases and core distortion increases, the potential for the system to fail increases. The graphite core cannot be repaired or replaced. It's a life-ending scenario.

And the cause of this damage is not fully understood. One reason is that there are currently limited means of detecting hidden, but developing, sub-surface cracks – so it's entirely possible that this age-related damage is much more extensive than either EDF or the UK nuclear regulators suggest.

When considering ageing nuclear plants, it is perhaps much better to be safe than sorry.

(Dr) Paul Dorfman, Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex Energy Group, University of Sussex

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