In the desperate struggle for readers and clicks, the Herald tries to make something negative out of nothing at all:

‘The latest workforce statistics show that more GPs than ever before are being paid a salary instead of earning their income as an independent contractor, in a sign of the strain facing the profession.’

From my lefty perspective on the NHs and other things, that looks like good news. We don’t want any more ‘independent contractors’ motivated by profit, do we?

Anyhow, McArdle has previous. On the 28^th November, she told us that there were ‘unsafe’ staffing pressures on nurses, based only on a dodgy trade union survey, and despite Scotland having 50% more nurses than the UK figure:

https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2019/11/28/50-more-nurses-in-scotland-but-heralds-hobgoblin-correspondent-presents-trade-unions-dodgy-research-to-help-tories-as-election-looms/

In October she claimed that ‘half of older doctors were planning to quit’ yet only 167 out of 8 000 did in 2017-2018 and that was down from 185 the previous year:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00620/

Both McCardle and Lisa Summers seem to have missed this:

Scottish GP headcount climbs for 3rd quarter in a row, is younger and more numerous than in England

https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2019/12/03/scottish-gp-headcount-climbs-for-3rd-quarter-in-a-row-is-younger-and-more-numerous-than-in-england/