Cloak of secrecy is poisonous to all

A PERVADING culture of secrecy is poisoning all corners of Scottish public life.

The police are allergic to revealing even the most basic details of their operations.

The Scottish Government are being investigated for their handling – or mishandling – of freedom of information requests. And teachers and other public sector workers are often simply too scared of recriminations to go public with legitimate concerns about their employers.

Now the NHS are going to the shocking lengths of trying to gag the bereaved relatives of a woman who died in mysterious circumstances while in their care.

Mary Carruthers and Joyce Miller have desperately been trying to find out what happened to their mum Joyce Neil in Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, four years ago.

They have previously received an anonymous letter warning of a cover-up by the local health board and the police are now involved.

Given that background, you would hope NHS Ayrshire & Arran would deal with their complaint in the most transparent way possible. Fat chance of that.

Instead they have stonewalled Mary and Joyce at every turn and are now trying to silence them.

Health bosses initially refused to meet the sisters but relented after the Record reported on the story.

But after the meeting was arranged, they later insisted on a confidentiality clause. When the two sisters refused to agree to it, the meeting was cancelled.

It’s a shady set of circumstances that would shame any apparently open society.

In modern-day Scotland, that is both completely unacceptable and utterly unsurprising.