NHS is quite well

Brian Monteith (Perspective, 8 January) claims that someone in Kirkcudbright waiting for treatment doesn’t care that the NHS in England is significantly worse than in Scotland – but no sane person would rather be in the care of the separate health service in England under the Tories or even worse, in Wales under Labour.

Under the SNP, as well as far better hospital performance figures, NHS Scotland offers more GPS per head of population, and unlike in England we enjoy free prescriptions, free personal care, free eye tests, free baby boxes for those who apply and for women aged between 25 and 64, the cervical screening test will also be used to check for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), another cause of cancer.

In trying to make political capital, some forget that the four-hour A&E target includes the time to be registered on arrival, prioritised, seen by a doctor, investigated, diagnosed and either treated, discharged or admitted to a ward – it is not four hours “to be seen”.

Last July the Nuffield Trust published their report “Learning from Scotland’s NHS” which sets out the lessons that the NHS in other parts of the UK can glean from Scotland and said the biggest threat to our NHS is from Brexit, due to increased drug costs and staff recruitment difficulties.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh