Record View says those in well-paid leadership positions – in government and in our health boards – need to up their game. Lives are at stake if they continue to fail us.
Scotland’s emergency service workers are true heroes who go the extra mile to help us when we need it most. There’s absolutely no doubt those who provide our 999 services are highly trained, world class operators.
But there is clearly a long term problem with ambulance waiting times and people are dying as a result. Today, the Daily Record reports on two families who know this only too well.
Julie Parker died after waiting almost four hours for help last month. Brian Hurton died alone on his bathroom floor after twice being told an ambulance was not being dispatched.
The families are joining forces to demand improvements. They say nobody in desperate need of medical help should be waiting hours for an ambulance to arrive.
And they rightly declare that no Scot should die due to delays in getting an ambulance to them. Hopefully our MSPS – and Health Secretary Angela Constance – will take heed of what the families are saying.
However, it would be unfair to single out the ambulance service for blame. Wider problems within the NHS mean that crews are often forced to wait in queues outside A&E departments for hours on end.
This leaves frustrated paramedics sitting outside hospitals rather than out on patrol saving lives. To sort this problem out, more resources need to be diverted to emergency provision within the NHS – and that means wider reform of the service, which is long overdue.
Scots pay higher taxes than every other part of the the UK. So we expect to see better public services as a result – with hospitals obviously benefiting from the extra cash available.
That does not appear to be the case. Those in well-paid leadership positions – in government and in our health boards – need to up their game. Lives are at stake if they continue to fail us.
Cold hard facts
Wildfires continue to rage in the Cairngorms, with smoke and fumes from the blaze blowing in over Aberdeen.
In France and Spain, hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as blazes rage out of control.
Anyone who doubts the effects of climate change – or who thinks it somehow doesn’t affect us – can’t continue to keep their heads in the sand.
It’s clear that drought and extreme heat are going to become a fact of life from now on, even in rain-soaked Scotland.
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