NHS mess needs urgent treatment

ANOTHER week, another horrifying set of statistics proving Scotland’s NHS is creaking at the seams.

There will be little surprise at the news the Scottish Government’s target has been missed for an eighth consecutive month.

The official position is that 95 per cent of patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arriving at A&E. The latest figures show they’re only managing to hit the benchmark with 90 per cent of patients.

One area were the NHS must make rapid improvements is in the treatment of mental health problems.

Failure has become a recurring issue at Holyrood in recent months due to the diligent work of Labour leader Richard Leonard and Lib Dem Willie Rennie.

It’s clear Health Secretary Shona Robison has a long way to go to get on top of things.

More than 1100 young people waited longer than the 18-week target time for treatment in the first three months of the year – a spike of 60 per cent.

Psychological therapy for adults is also in a sorry state. More than 3300 patients missed the target in the same time period, an increase of more than 400 cases.

It doesn’t take a medical degree to diagnose what these statistics are a symptom of. Years of underinvestment by the SNP is causing chaos across the NHS, despite the heroic efforts of frontline nurses, doctors and support staff. An 11-year-old overnment have nobody to blame but themselves.