Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Guardian today, the above and:
In a letter to the NHS chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, the BMA council chair, Dr Tom Dolphin, and the deputy council chair, Dr Emma Runswick, said: “Your decision to instruct hospitals to run non-urgent planned care stretches safe staffing far too thinly, and risks not only patient safety in urgent and emergency situations, but in planned care, too.
“Consultants cannot safely provide elective care and cover for residents at the same time. We therefore strongly urge you to reconsider your instructions to hospitals, which should be preparing now to postpone non-urgent planned activity in order to provide a safe urgent and emergency service in keeping with the levels of staff available.”
The last round of strikes, which included walkouts by other health workers, came at an estimated cost of £1.5bn to the NHS in England, with 1.5m appointments, procedures and operations postponed as a result of the stoppages.
After the last set of Junior Doctor strikes in 2023/2024, there were serious concerns about postponed appointments and excess deaths due to these.
Above, the shocking picture of 52 out of the last 365 when doctors were on strike in England. There were no days lost to action in Scotland.
According to the Guardian on 10 January, junior doctor strikes caused around 1.3 million appointments to be cancelled. Had there been comparable action in Scotland, around 130 000 appointments would have been lost.
According to the Telegraph on 2 January, there were nearly 53 000 excess deaths in 2023 ‘amid’ the strikes across the UK so, had there been strikes in Scotland, the implication is more than 5 000 deaths were averted by the actions of Humza Yousaf as Health Secretary and then as FM in respecting, meeting with and settling with both consultants and junior doctors, without a single day lost to action.
Sources:
Record number of excess deaths amid NHS strikes (telegraph.co.uk)
The SNP settlement to avoid strikes?
From the Guardian July 13, 2023, live feed 08.34:
BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:
Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books.
We can call this strike off today if the UK Government will simply follow the example of the government in Scotland and drop their nonsensical precondition of not talking whilst strikes are announced and produce an offer which is credible to the doctors they are speaking with.
The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay.
The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong. He said above 5% wasn’t realistic – Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential.
The BMA leaders said talks have to be resumed, adding:
The government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action.
Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike.
The complete inflexibility we see from the UK government today is baffling, frustrating and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up.
The government has missed chance after chance to provide a credible offer and potentially bring to an end the industrial action by junior doctors in England and whilst there are differences between junior doctors and governments in England and Scotland, the UK government has far more financial freedom to give doctors what they deserve.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/jul/13/doctors-strike-nhs-rishi-sunak-pay-uk-politics-live
Chair BMA Scotland, Dr Iain Kennedy was strangely not available for comment. Having tea with Sandesh Gulhane MSP (Con)?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Ultimately, the longer we, Scotland, stay under the heel of our Westminster oppressor, we are bound to be affected, in many aspects of our public utilities, to a lesser, or greater degree. Saying, as they are doing, that Independence is their main goal, the S.N.P are correct in that regard. But while words are fine, they mean nothing if a definite plan of action is not formulated. So where is the plan? I don’t see one. Does anyone else? Or are they too comfortable, if they remain, in power at Holyrood? 2026 might answer my question.
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I worry about Swinney, how effective or ineffective he is in getting the message across that Scotland needs to extricate itself from England and also making sure to tell people waht the English HQ’d parties did when they had ten years at Hoyrood, and before that. England had centuries of being in control of Scotland’s land, resources and revenues etc. I think SNP are scared to say ‘England’ or English re how terrible the so called union is for Scotland, which is weird because the anti Scottish and Scotland is too stupid, poor and too everything bad from the EngGov and their compliant media, is incessant.
With world events going on now and so called Labour Uk at the helm now, I do wonder if Swinney and the other high office SNP lot are treading very carefully in what they say and to some extent do. That’s a huge concern imho.
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Hi John,
I’m not sure if you are aware of this but the Grok tool (AI) on “X” can help with research into stuff like this. Here’s its take on the request “compare performance health service scotland england”
https://x.com/i/grok/share/Zm3XYWZqvjH50N6e2OWKwMhoy
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Thanks
I have done so for this – https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/07/21/impartial-intelligence-based-research-confirms-scotland-has-more-investment-nearly-four-times-as-many-clean-rivers-fewer-sewage-spills-and-only-a-quarter-of-the-number-failing-tests/
Tried NHS comparison but it was not so good, using old statistics.
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Nope. “Pigeon Pie” will allow the Brit Nat mejah to feast on zilch….again.
gavinochiltree
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GRE
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