Job for Joanna

Our First Minister’s grasp of the vaccine roll-out programme in Scotland demonstrates poor situational awareness. Her rose-tinted view from the TV studio jars with reality on the ground. Nicola Sturgeon needs to visit the engine room and see why the distribution cogs are turning so slowly.

The promised mass vaccination centres are operationally late and running well below capacity. The GP surgeries are inexplicably being starved of supply. As in the early days of the pandemic, the management figures are missing and/or misleading. Her centralised command and control mentality has stripped local authorities of their creativity. The NHS 9-5, Mondayfriday culture is in conflict with the needs of this emergency. Scottish NHS procurement practices and systems are inflexible and outdated. No amount of spin from Nicola’s well-oiled media machine can disguise the fact that our government isn’t responding quickly enough to her orders. The whole system is dysfunctional, marching to an internal cadence of… go go slow. If only her army of special advisers could be trained to inject as quickly as they can tweet, we’d be leading rather than chasing this pandemic. How do we get out of this mess? Build new agile systems using military/private sector experience, run them in parallel then decommission the old rot. This technique worked for the banks and is being used by the English NHS. Who would lead this crucial public sector reboot? Someone on the outside with an understanding of the need to put both people and function before process; the SNP rebel Joanna Cherry MP sounds perfect for this key job.

CALUM MILLER Polwarth Terrace, Prestonpans