By Professor John Robertson OBA
The Guardian today suggesting a further worsening of the situation with regard to cancer waiting times in England.
The gap in those waiting longer than the target time, was already wide when the BBC produced this in November 2022:
In July 2024, using the other one-month target, NHS Scotland was still performing better:
Why is this?
“It’s not specifically down to the SNP, but it’s SNP policies,” Whitford told The National.
“We still have a public NHS here in Scotland. To some extent it’s still the same in Wales, but in England the Health and Social Care Act 2012 broke everything up into competing trusts.
“They don’t collaborate with each other. Cancer pathways are quite complex, you need a lot of collaboration if you’re going to build a smooth pathway around patients.
“We also have a higher per capita ratio of GPs, of nurses, of consultants [than in England]. We pay higher, we’ve maintained that higher ratio of staff and beds than is the case in England.
“While we are struggling, Scotland is still ahead because the system that’s been maintained by the Scottish Government is still a united public health system.”
Phillipa Whitford MP in February 2024: https://www.thenational.scot/news/24102299.cancer-waiting-times-scotland-best-uk—targets-still-arent-met/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
But, of course, as far as the unionist parties and their balefully thuggish media heavies are concerned IT IS THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT TO BLAME.
We see this attitude in this mornings newspaper headlines regarding the SG announcement that winter fuel payments to pensioners will not be paid.
It was obvious that such a decision would have to be made after The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced earlier this year that such payments would not be made in England.
Under devolution, Scotland and the other devolved nations would, as a consequence, have the block grant for such payments withdrawn and, if the SG wished to proceed with payments, it would have divert money from other parts of its fixed block grant. With poverty levels increasing and after years of Westminster austerity, Holyrood has almost no scope for such budget juggling.
Alasdair Macdonald
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if i lived in england or wales or ni and had such an illness i would move to Scotland because time is important and getting treated sooner is life or death
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WE MUST ALL STRONGLY GET BEHIND SCOTTISH INDEPENDENT PARTIESSent from my iPhone
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Someone should tell Jackie Baillie. She’s writing in the Scotsman about how the SG is failing the health service. She’s beginning to get on my goat.
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