In the Herald today:
‘GROWING numbers of senior doctors are quitting the NHS or are not working additional shifts after being hit with more than £8 million in pension charges for working extra hours, new figures show. Medics have been warning for more than a year they would cut back on workloads because of the complex pension rules, and now figures show that NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Tayside are among the boards that have seen increasing numbers of consultants retire.’
First, only 593 out of the 18 000 doctors (3.3%), in NHS Scotland, responded to the BMA study, on which the above claim of plans to quit or to cut back on workloads is based. While I don’t have the 2019 figures, we do know that actual early retirement of GPs is at a very low and declining level with only 167 or 3.3% of GPs doing so in 2017-2018.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00620/
Second, Scotland has a much better ratio of medical staff, including doctors and consultants than NHS England. See this from Jeanne Freeman in April 2019:
Note: Margaret Taylor is apparently the Herald’s Business Correspondent.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
So glad I stopped buying the Herald a few years ago. And I used to like reading Macwhirter’s pieces!
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