Professor John Robertson OBA
You’ve seen the media reports of Scottish doctors and nurses fleeing Scotland for New Zealand and Australia (both of the above, one from Mull). It’s being going on for a few years now with no significant statistics suggesting an ‘exodus’ but, I’m still wondering now how good are the health services down under?
How about A&E?
According to The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) in January 2025, 31% are waiting more than 8 hours.1 and only 55% were treated within 4 hours.2
In New Zealand, the use a 6 hour wait as the target and 72% has been achieved3 but, if we’re adjusting that to the more widely used 4 hour target, that could actually be as low as 48%.
In January 2025, in Scotland, 65.6% were treated in 4 hours and 14.3% waited over 8 hours.4
England and Wales – In January 2025, both treating only 54.1%.5
So, NHS Scotland full emergency departments around 20% better on the 4 hour target than Oz, NZ, England or Wales and nearly three times better than Oz on the 8 hour target.
Sources:
- https://intensivecareathome.com/emergency-department-wait-times-blow-out-in-australia-as-hospitals-struggle-to-discharge-patients/
- https://www.ama.com.au/media/report-card-shows-long-road-ahead-restore-australias-public-hospital-system
- https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/557080/steady-progress-toward-meeting-wait-targets-health-nz-chief
- https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/healthcare-system/urgent-and-unscheduled-care/accident-and-emergency/downloads-and-open-data/our-downloads/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70k6r0rg03o
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Ahh, but earthquakes, and in Aussieland, Kangaroos, they can be dangerous. 😉 Scotland’s a great country, it could be so much better if only like NZ and Australia, hmm, let me think now, ah yes they escaped the clutches of the English establishment and took back their independence.
Looking at what that guy Wes Streeting is not saying, the sell off of the England’s NHS is pretty much in the bag. Scotland’s NHS will be next if the English Labour administration and their jobsworths in Scotland can CON enough of the people.
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Do bear in mind the context of the Torygraph in January 2023, when world’s end was the Watford Gap- ‘Bloody stupid’ Johnson gone, ‘lettuce liz’ wilted under the woke heat, and Sunak or later is still trying to wriggle out of the ‘Eat out to help the virus out’ stigma and ‘non-dom’ embarrassment… https://archive.ph/FiRwh
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A few years ago now, but after starting work one day at 7:00am in Brisbane, I had the misfortune to be bitten on the arm by a rather large, angry looking centipede. From wrist to elbow my arm swelled up like a football – and my supervisor sent me to the nearby A&E.
Got there at 7:45am, registered, and sat down in the waiting room. At 6:00pm I still hadn’t been seen by either a nurse or doctor – so went home and treated myself with a red hot needle, disinfectant and a bandage. I still have the bite mark and the burn mark from the needle on my wrist, but obviously lived to tell the tale.
Since moving to Scotland, I have experienced nothing like such a wait – the worst being a four hour wait in a packed waiting room in Elgin last Xmas eve.
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‘treated myself with a red hot needle, disinfectant and a bandage?’
Sheesh! What a man!
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When needs must.
One day I’ll tell the story of the first aid treatment I received after being bitten on the leg by a venomous snake whilst working in the Queensland bush. Not for the faint hearted…
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To quote REM – I’d rather chew my leg off than be stuck in this?
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If you ever watched the Crocodile Dundee films, you may remember the Paul Hogan line “Call that a knife – this is a knife” – as he pulled out a rather large hunting knife…
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Many of the NHS staff are from other countries. They must be happy to come here.
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