Professor John Robertson OBA
The above from September 2023, shows private healthcare providers (red) and MPs taking money from them to push their interests (blue £), notably then only one in Scotland – Ian Murray, Edinburgh South (Labour).
STV today has the above and what is essentially advertising for the Elanic Hospital in Glasgow.
Typically, only at the very end of long piece do we see:
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Latest data shows just 1.8% of the Scottish population used private healthcare for inpatient and day case admissions.
telling the reader that they have been reading a pack of lies.
Further evidence of the dishonesty of the reporting is this:
NHS England spending THREE TIMES more on private healthcare than NHS Scotland as their waiting list soars by 800 000 more under UK Government
The Guardian 25 October 2025, had:
Private healthcare boom fuelled by NHS waiting lists. UK market rose to all-time high of £12.4bn last year, with NHS paying for nearly £3.5bn of procedures to ease backlog. More patients went private last year as the NHS waiting list peaked at 7.77 million in September, up sharply from 4.57 million at the end of 2019.1
There’s no mention of Scotland in the report so we can be sure ‘UK’, as often before, means ‘England’.
In 2022/23, the total amount spent by NHS health boards in Scotland on private healthcare was £115,599,000.2
All things being equal with 10 times the population, NHS England might have been expected to spend around £1.15bn but spent £3.5bn, more than 3 times more.
On waiting lists, helpfully provided by BBC Scotland:
NHS waiting lists in Scotland have reached a record high, the latest figures show. Public Health Scotland recorded more than 690,000 waits for appointments or treatment for non-urgent care as of 31 March.28 May 2024.3
Again, all things being equal with 10 times the population, NHS England might have been expected to have around 6.9 million on the waiting lists but has 7.77 million, 800 000 more. That’d be 80 000 more on the NHS Scotland waiting list if it was overseen by the UK Government.
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” Latest data shows that just 1.8% of the Scottish population used Private Healthcare – even less when Labour Leader ( sic ) Anas Sarwar is excluded ! ” Sorted !
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Private healthcare is expensive. It does not cover long term sick. Scotland spends £13Billion on healthcare. + social care. Over 1/3 of the Block Grant. £42Billion. An integrated healthcare system. Allowing the elderly stay in their own homes.
Private healthcare costs £2-3thousand a year and uses national healthcare resources. It would be better paying for individual services than paying for private healthcare. Not equal or fair.
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A significant proportion of people who use private healthcare will do so because it is offered by the company they work for.
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