I often just ignore Mackay’s ill-informed, hysterical and, of course, mercenary, reports in the Herald. Then, sometimes, I think I should correct them just in case someone is daft enough to believe them.
Today he writes:
Waiting times, ambulances delays, GP appointments – the NHS in both Scotland and England is on its knees. To work out just how bad it’s got, we spoke to the two frontline doctors leading the campaign to save the NHS. Neil Mackay reports THERE’S only one way to understand what has gone wrong with the NHS: sit down with the two doctors leading the campaign to fix our health service north and south of the border and get a diagnosis.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/22623040.neil-mackays-big-read-scottish-nhs-collapsing-doctors-right-blaming-snp/
Regulars will remember that Neil writes stuff like this, in November 2021:
Or this is July 2021:
Have we had an update on this mince?
Back to today on NHS Scotland collapsing and the only way to understand being to sit with down with two, just two, doctors, I’ll take the second first. Just two out of more than 5 000 doctors? What about the 60 000 nurses? A survey of lots of them better than just two who might turn out to be union reps or cousins of Anas Sarwar?
Now lets have some evidence on the supposed collapse:
97.1% treated within target time due to major increase in radiologist staffing under SNP: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-october-to-31-december-2021/
NHS Scotland staffing at record high under SNP: https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/73KHCyoLEur7y9MniZ7_PR?domain=twitter.com
Scotland has more than 50% more nurses per patient than England: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00620/
Scotland recruits far more student nurses: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/09/22/scotland-recruits-far-more-student-nurses/
Scotland has most beds per patient in UK: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/05/31/scotland-has-most-beds-per-patient-in-uk/
I could go on but the dog needs walked.
Talking-up Scotland 
I’ve no doubt the dog will produce some Neil Mackays enroute….
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder what Neil Mackay thought his career in journalism would be like when he started at the Herald.
Does he ever now reflect on why that career path went so badly askew, that all he is told to now write is repetitive and inaccurate tosh for a failing newspaper.
Still, might be a good enough CV for BBC Scotland right enough 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Alternatively :
” The Herald is collapsing !”
To work out just how bad it’s got we spoke to the two frontline journalists who spearheading the campaign to Save The Herald …and neither of them was Neil Mackay !
LikeLiked by 3 people