The Daily Record’s front page today seeks to conceal how safety in NHS Scotland has impressed Nordic countries and pays out less than one sixth of the amount per head in malpractice claims paid in NHS England

We’ve had to stop saying ‘a new low for the Record.’ There seems to be none.

Today, we see them sickeningly exploiting an understandably upset father and using his words, only, to apparently confirm mistakes made in the death of his newborn child.

I’m no more in a position to comment on that death than is the Record but I am able to tell you this:

In 2023/2024 (latest) NHS Scotland payed out £47.3m for health-related complaints.1

All things being equal with ten times the population, you might expect the NHS England to be around £480m.

It was £3.1bn! 2

More than 6 times as high, per head of population.

Why such a difference? Scotland’s hospitals are safer.

See this from 2022:

Dr Pelle Gustafson, chief medical officer, of Swedish patient insurer Löf, said he was “particularly impressed” by the work in Scotland over the past 10 years during a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), which has been in existence for around 13 years, was set up to make patient safety a priority in NHS Scotland, drawing on lessons from the airline industry such as introducing checklists. Gustafson was asked by Tory MP Dr Luke Evans which country he would hold at the “very top of the pillar” for preventative work during an evidence session on NHS litigation reform last week.

He responded: “If you take all preventive work as regards patient safety, I would say that I am personally very impressed by Scotland. “You have a system that is fairly equal all over the place and you also have improvement activities going on. I am very impressed by Scotland.”

He added: “I am particularly impressed by the Scottish work over the last 10 years. There are a lot of things that we, in the Nordic countries, can learn from Scotland too.”3

Sources:

  1. https://www.nss.nhs.scot/media/5856/cnoris-annual-report-2023-2024-published.pdf
  2. https://resolution.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/E03358428-NHS-Resolution-ARA-24-25-Web-accessible.pdf
  3. https://www.thenational.scot/news/19850998.swedish-expert-praises-leading-work-patient-safety-scotland/

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