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The above threat is not the result of the gathered opinion of thousands of Scottish ‘doctors’ but just the views of Geriatrician, Professor Andrew Elder of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, above.
He clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
NHS England is more than 100 times, 10 times per head, more privatised than NHS Scotland
in England were delivered by private hospitals and clinics in the last 12 months – that’s almost 500 000 higher than the previous year. The Health Secretary….[was not criticised for the obvious evidence of failures in NHS England.]
The figure, 6.15 million comes from the private sector – David Hare, Independent Healthcare Providers Network.
Scotland, you ask?
From Grok AI:
NHS Scotland’s policy prioritizes public sector delivery for elective care, with limited reliance on the independent (private) sector compared to other UK nations. Use of private hospitals and clinics is targeted at specific backlogs (e.g., orthopaedics, ophthalmology, endoscopy) and is often short-term or regionally focused. Exact aggregate figures for NHS-funded activity in private facilities over the precise period of October 26, 2024, to October 26, 2025, are not publicly available in official statistics as of the current date (the most recent comprehensive data covers up to Q3 2024, with partial updates for 2024-25). However, based on Scottish Government reports, Audit Scotland data, and health board disclosures, I estimate approximately 50,000 to 70,000 appointments, tests, and operations were delivered in private hospitals and clinics for NHS Scotland patients in the last 12 months. This is derived from expenditure trends, procedure volumes, and historical patterns.
This is an estimate, as is, given it’s diversity of ownership, the private sector figure but, all things being equal, you might expect the NHS England figure to be 10 times greater, at 500 000 to 600 000. It is, however, at least, 100 times greater at 6 150 000.
This dramatic contrast can be seen in the distribution of private health care providers across the UK:
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).
The scale of the drift to privatisation – Nearly 100% of GPs in Scotland work in the NHS but only 66% do so in England
In the Guardian in September 2025:
One in three GPs in England do not work in the NHS, with increasing numbers seeking to move abroad or becoming a private contractor, deepening patients’ difficulties in getting appointments.
The proportion of family doctors who, although qualified, do not provide care through the NHS has risen from 27% in 2015 to 34% last year, according to a study published in the BMJ.
That means almost 20,000 GPs who could be working in the health service are “lost” to it and are not doing so, despite unprecedented demand for care and many government initiatives to try to increase GP numbers.
How does Scotland compare?
The percentage of qualified Scottish GPs working in the NHS (via general practice contracts) is approximately 100%, with minor exceptions for those in non-clinical roles (e.g., academia or administration) or temporarily out of practice.
https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/nhs-under-pressure-scotland and https://www.thenational.scot/news/25417923.number-gps-scotland-increases-first-time-since-2019/
So, 34% and 100% – three times as many?
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Talking-up Scotland 
While the great majority of doctors abide by the spirit of the Hippocratic oath, there are some, like a Scottish MSP, who have other agendas and there is a fair number who work in both the NHS and the private sector. It is no coincidence that the private Nuffield Clinic in Kelvindale is a short walk from Gartnavel General Hospital.
I know people who were told the date of their minor surgery at Gartnavel, and also, the doctor, indicated that they could have an earlier date at the Nuffield – for a fee! I know several who accepted because of the discomfort of their condition and because they could afford it.
So, while a big majority of doctors adhere to the principles of the NHS, a significant minority ‘work both sides of the street’. The NHS waiting list ‘scandal’ so beloved of the media and the ‘Scottish’ Labour Party is to an extent due to doctors working in both sectors.
I recall the famous (notorious, to some!) quote of Aneurin Bevan after he had set up the NHS following extended wrangle with the BMA and the other ‘Colleges’ (fancy name for trade union) because of their insistence on being able to continue private practice in addition to NHS work, that, in getting a deal, ‘he had stuffed their mouths with money.’
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NHS England………
One word……..Palantir.
Palantir has been awarded a 7-year, £330 million contract by NHS England (ending 2030/31)…….
The contract has faced significant scrutiny over data privacy and the company’s background.
Red alert but actually more really blue alert if Labour- “The deal has faced opposition from privacy campaigners and some health professionals, raising concerns about a U.S. surveillance-linked firm handling sensitive UK (English) patient data”.
“The software is being rolled out across England, though some trusts have questioned its functionality“.
The Good Law project stated “Palantir – a spy-tech firm with links to war crimes in Gaza, mass deportations in the US and a founder who thinks the NHS makes people sick”
One example cited by GLP as “Deadly ICE raids in the US rely on Palantir tools that mine health records to produce real-time data on people’s location – a chilling prospect for the NHS”.
Labour policy is privatise privatise privatise……..while donors from Private Health companies say……..what’s in it for us via our donations to you as individual politicians and also as a party seeking election….
The answer is………..
Hello private Healthcare and goodbye the NHS…that is, the NHS as we know it.
BTW here is a wee fact for today (different topic), but topical.
Reform UK have 8 MP’s and the Green party in England now have 5 MP’s.
All of the Green party MP’s in England were elected as Green MP’s.
But of the 8 Reform UK MP’s, 3 of them were originally elected as Tory MP’s who have now defected to Reform UK.
So will BBC QT now invite the Green party onto their various programmes in England as much as they invited Reform UK onto their programmes…in fact they invited an unelected representative of Reform UK onto their programme too many times.…as in Zia Yusuf….
I thought Reform UK and Farage did not like input from anyone who they said was “unelected”…..or is that just confined to the EU ( who all , as MEP’s, actually were elected Ha Ha).
What a lark (not)……..as in all of this politics and media malarky , as it seems so obvious that both are (#UKBAD)….and really let’s be honest here , is there any other #BAD kind of media and politics within their UK State ?…
Well seems not , that is , if you are a Scot living in Scotland just now (or apparently also a Green voter in England too…especially, it seems, according to Nigel Farage , if you are a Muslim one.
#SecondClassCitizen
Says who ?
Well, apparently, the worst kind of people do………..
(NB. Brian Leishman has now unleashed another political stunt in him saying that Starmer should resign.
#CopyCat.
Now interpreted as him, Leishman, saying ‘I want to keep my job as a Labour MP elected in Scotland’ …..
As in a (pathetic) attempt , by Leishman, just like Sarwar as a branch office manager, at there being ‘no shoogly peg for Leishman’ (or Sarwar) on his (or Sarwar’s) political future….in any subsequent elections.
Liz S
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After c.14 years of Tory rule associated with the degradation of public services including health services, this ‘precious’ Union is now governed by a British Labour Party (aka LINO) whose traditionally strongest supporters – trades unions – are characterising it as follows:
Unison (February 27): Commenting on the Green Party victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election, UNISON general secretary Andrea Egan is saying: ‘Many traditional Labour supporters, in Manchester and across the country, want to see progressive values robustly defended against the far-right, not gleefully abandoned. (my emphasis)
“A Labour government should be standing up for workers, defending migrants and refugees, and taking the fight to Nigel Farage rather than letting him set the agenda. “Under Keir Starmer the party is failing on every count, leaving the Greens to fill the vacuum.
“Cosying up to the rich and powerful, and protecting their interests whilst attacking ordinary working people and the left has singularly failed. The prime minister is now reaping the electoral consequences of that strategy.’
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham is saying “If Labour needed any further wake up calls – this is clearly one. Labour need to now ditch the gimmicks and get back to being Labour – not new, not one that plays games, but real Labour.
“Workers and families are hurting. We have a cost of living crisis largely being ignored and investment in jobs for the here-and-now being blocked by a Treasury that doesn’t seem to understand the basics of what is needed to build Britain.
“Stop listening your rich mates and start listening to everyday people.”
The head of the Fire Brigades Union, Steve Wright, is saying: “Labour’s entire strategy of framing politics as “it’s us v Reform” is in tatters.
He said: “The party’s traditional core vote is collapsing before our eyes. This result represents a halving of the vote compared to 2024. That should set alarm bells ringing across the labour movement.
“If the government does not change course immediately, it will face heavy losses in the May elections, and at that point, the political consequences for Keir Starmer will become unavoidable. The game will be up unless there is a decisive shift in direction.
“The Labour Party needs to listen to the people, not Parliament. It needs to listen to its members and affiliated unions, not corporate lobbyists.”
Source: https://leftfootforward.org/2026/02/how-trade-unions-have-reacted
These are damning indictments of Labour in government. Better than the Tories? Pandering to those attracted by Reform UK’s messaging?
Time for Labour-inclined voters in Scotland to think seriously in advance of the Holyrood election – whether to opt for a failing LINO as characterised by these trades unionists; or to opt for Farage’s Reform UK further right of the Tories, to prioritise support for the Union; or to vote for the SNP and/or the Greens and prioritise progressive, left of centre economic and social policies, for worthwhile change.
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Breaking news as a recap of a previous statement made by Sir Keir Stamer…….
When he, Sir Keir Starmer , once said to the left of the Labour party:
“If you don’t like the changes that we’ve made, I say the door is open and you can leave.”
Gorton and Denton voters said……
Okay then, we as voters, will now elect the Green party to represent us in WM……..also known as us “leaving the Labour party”…..as voters.
So Labour , like Reform UK, adopt a Calimero approach in them now saying:
“It’s an injustice so it is”…… based on the by-election result.
Suck it up….says the voters in Gorton &b Denton….as that is our democratic choice via our democratic vote…………….
Mainly as Labour seemed to be saying to all voters that they will always …..do the following:
‘Put their right foot in , and their left foot (decisively) out.
So then after way too much hokey cokey from Labour, as a party and as the current and latest UK government, the voters in Gorton & Denton then said OK, let’s shake it all about….. and so then let us vote, via a majority, for the Green party in our constituency of Gorton & Denton….and so not vote for Labour. (nor indeed vote for Reform UK either).
Hokey Cokey
So now it seems that once more both Labour & Reform UK have both fallen down……….
And if it continues as a (political) pattern then we, as Scots, may indeed finally live happily ever after……….once we get our independence that is………….
Liz S
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SNHS is funded £13Billion a year plus social care. A third of the underfunded Block Grant. £42Billion. Prescriptions saving money keeping people well. Less needs to be spent on healthcare. Keeping people well. Personal care funds the elderly staying in their own home. Much preferred. Less costly than residential care. £1000+ a week. Hospital £1000K+ a day.
The Tories cut NHS funding for 10 years +. They did not increase necessary funding. After promising to support the NHS if elected. Brexit lies on a campaign bus. Political parties do fund campaign buses on political expenses. Another frame up.
The Scottish Gov have to mitigate the lack of Westminster funding and the cuts. They do extremely well. Keeping people well and saving funds.
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