Scotland’s NHS is in crisis and Scotland’s government is in denial. A new study by the former head of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow presents a grim diagnosis of the nation’s health and the services tasked with tending to it. Much of the reporting is focused on a steep increase in the time patients spend waiting for calls to be answered by NHS 24, the Scottish equivalent of NHS 111. The median phone waiting time has climbed from nine seconds in 2014 to 22.5 minutes today. Mike McKirdy, whose review was commissioned by Scottish Labour, describes that rise as ‘astonishing’.

Most popular

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The BBC’s anti-Semitism training is an offensive parody

Lucy Dunn

Will Starmer take up Badenoch’s grooming gangs advice?

Arabella Byrne

The Sloane Ranger

See Full Page