Professor John Robertson OBA
From BBC Health today, the above and:
Access to hospital treatments is being restricted in many areas of England as the NHS struggles to balance its books, the BBC has learnt. Regional health boards have ordered some hospitals to cut back on the number of patients they are seeing, meaning hundreds of thousands of patients could have to wait longer for treatment.
NHS managers said they were between a “rock and a hard place” trying to juggle balancing the books with tackling the hospital backlog, which currently stands at 7.4 million. Reducing waits for things like hip and knee operations and hitting the 18-week waiting time target is the government’s number one priority for the health service.
But documents seen by the BBC show integrated care boards, which are in charge of spending on behalf of NHS England, asking hospitals to make patients wait longer and reduce the numbers they treat until the end of the financial year. One asked a private provider to reduce activity by nearly 30% and to make patients wait eight weeks longer, on average, while stopping taking on new referrals for a period as a way to cut back on the amount being done.
BBC Scotland does not have a link to this. Here’s why:
Massive 12% surge in planned operations in NHS Scotland but cancellations held at only 3.2% to still deliver 97% on time
From Cancelled planned operations Month ending 31 October 2025, published yesterday, the above and:
There were 27,862 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 12.2% higher (+3,038) than the number planned a year previously in October 2024 (24,824) and the highest number of operations planned since January 2020. Overall, the number of planned operations has been increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision.
Of all planned operations during October 2025 in NHS Scotland, 783 (2.8%) were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 828 (3.0%) were cancelled by the patient, 894 (3.2%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 96 (0.3%) were cancelled for other reasons.
Note that only those procedures cancelled for capacity or non-clinical reasons can be used to judge performance, a performance that is by any standards deeply impressive.
Where’s Jackie Baillie? Where’s Sandy Gullane?
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I see The Scotsman asked Neil Gray if those who can afford to should pay for the Flu Vaccine, something he appears to agree with.
Silver Fox Hot Takes on YouTube has made a video on it.
I also see that Jeane Freeman is appearing to blame The SNP for NHS failings.
On top of this, Reform have won a council seat in Scotland.
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No – what you’ve seen is her blaming “successive governments”, not just the SNP.
She also said a key to improving the health service was don’t leave it to the politicians and to gather widespread views from clinical teams.
She included janitors in those teams as well as numerous others – am surprised you didn’t say that she recommended only them.
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“No – what you’ve seen is her blaming “successive governments”, not just the SNP.”
Yes, that is correct, but she was health minister between 2018-2021 for The SNP, so why didn’t she do what she discussed when in a position to do so? A bit like the promise by The SNP to reform council tax.
What do you think about Reform gaining their first council seat in Scotland?
That is the same Scotland where Nigel Farage was once made to feel unwelcome in an Edinburgh pub.
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I meant to also add that what Jeane Freeman is doing is not dissimilar to what The Tories are doing at the moment, complaining about things they had 14 years to do something about.
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Why don’t you ask her- I’m not privy to the rationale behind any decisions made by any politicians. As to promises not adhered to by political parties, you might as well ask Labour why we still have to put up with the House of Lords which they promised to get rid of, or ask the Tories why they promised to end homelessness permanently – only for it to rise out of control almost immediately.
I don’t really think anything about Reform winning a council seat in a 22% turnout election – especially with just six months to go until the next election. Plenty of time for their representative to follow the lead of their other councillors in England and show how incompetent the party – or should I say limited company – actually is.
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OO vote as in Hamilton by-election
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‘A bit like the promise by The SNP to reform council tax.’
Council Tax Reform and the SNP government proposal to establish a public energy company are two issues – two ‘accusations’ of supposed broken promises – that keep on coming up.
In neither case are the FULL circumstances – and arguably the justifiably reasons for the eventual outcomes – ever set out by the ‘accusers’.
Hopefully one day the FULL evidence-based stories will be told although I suspect most reasonable folk accept that not all political ambitions work out as governing parties would wish – for various reasons, some understandable, some not – and want to look to present challenges and to look forward.
For what it’s worth and for efficiency, I asked ChatGPT this: ‘Why were Scottish Government’s past promises to reform Council Tax not delivered?‘ Its unedited response follows, confirming a complex of reasons. Council Tax is viewed as less than an ideal tax by many commentators in England and Wales, and it remains unreformed there too. Indeed even re-evaluations have not happened yet.
From ChatGPT (with my emphasis): ‘The Scottish Government has repeatedly promised to reform or replace the Council Tax system — including pledges going back to its 2007 election manifesto — but has not delivered on major reform. Analysts, politicians and stakeholder groups point to a combination of political, practical and structural reasons why promised reforms have repeatedly stalled rather than being implemented:
‘Strategic avoidance of politically sensitive reforms – Some potential reforms (e.g., revaluation of property values) could redistribute tax burdens and are politically sensitive. There has been a tendency to focus on incremental changes rather than radical overhaul, partly to avoid backlash from homeowners in higher bands.
‘The Scottish Government’s past promises to reform or replace Council Tax have not been delivered mainly because political consensus has been elusive, policy complexity is high, and decision-makers have prioritised caution and consultation over concrete action. Changes in manifesto language over time, operational delays in working groups, and broader political distractions (e.g., constitutional debates) have compounded this, meaning major reform remains unresolved.
‘Lack of political consensus – A core reason officials themselves cite is that no clear political consensus has emerged in Holyrood on what should replace council tax. Successive attempts to define a replacement or significant reform have been delayed because parties and MSPs disagree on the preferred model and on how to manage winners and losers from change. The Scottish Government has therefore focused on building consensus rather than pushing through a specific proposal.
‘Constitutional and political indecision – Experts point to wider political tension and “constitutional paralysis” — particularly the dominance of the independence debate — as undermining cross-party collaboration on local tax reform. This has made it harder to forge durable agreement on how to overhaul council tax.
‘Complexity and policy caution – Council tax reform is technically complex. The system is based on property values frozen since 1991, and updating or replacing it involves difficult choices about valuation, revenue neutrality and fairness. Officials have repeatedly emphasised caution, public consultation and evidence-building before adopting a new regime, contributing to delays.
‘Government decisions to scale back promises – Although early SNP manifestos contained explicit commitments — including to abolish council tax — these were subsequently softened (e.g., pledging to “consult” on reform) and later decoupled from specific timelines. Ministers have acknowledged that reform may not be complete this decade.
‘Institutional inertia and stalled working groups – Structures intended to develop reform proposals — such as joint working groups with local government — have at times been criticised for inactivity or slow progress, slowing momentum for meaningful change.’
Perhaps the undelivered promise of an publicly-owned energy company might merit an examination and be even more straightforward – a bullet sensibly dodged given how the retail energy market shifted at the time!
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Yes she was Health Secretary from 2018 to 2021. Anything else going on for most of that time in the area of health that might explain why she did not do what she had previously discussed?
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Yep the mind doesn’t boggle, we know the ‘media’ in Scotland would be ecstatic and slapping the bad bad bad SNP all over the front pages adorning the shop shelves across the bad country of Scotland, to educate the folks of Scotland about how bad their stinking dysfunctional, dystopian, poor and stupid their country is.
England’s in huge trouble re their Brexit, and sadly their NHS is being dismantled to hand over to the US.
Be careful who you vote for next year Scotland, very careful indeed.
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