Scotland in 2023 is a dangerous country in which to fall ill.
As the First Minister said in her NHS press conference, hospitals exceeded 95 per cent capacity on January 4, compared to pre-pandemic levels of 87 per cent.
Thousands of patients are waiting longer than 12 hours to be seen in A+E, with some folk trapped in ambulances.
The sick are struggling to get admitted to hospital while the healthy are being kept in due to bed blocking.
We often hear about the latest crisis being unprecedented - but this time the medics are not exaggerating.
Nicola Sturgeon’s remedy resembles the same type of sticking plaster solution that her Government has reached for in the past. More cash for NHS 24. Extra investment for care packages. All paid for by higher taxes.
The problem is that the central issue - rising demand for health services set against a shortage of staff - pre dates the pandemic.
Sturgeon’s Government, like the Labour/Lib Dem Executive that preceded it in 2007, has ducked the sort of NHS reforms that should accompany extra investment.
Right wingers believe charging for basic services like GPs is the best way to reduce demand in the 21st century. This unpalatable shift would create a two-tier system based on the ability to pay and should be rejected outright.
A better and more progressive way of reaching the same goal is to ensure fewer trips to the doctor by having a healthier population.
This requires vigorous Government policies that ensure Scots smoke and drink less, as well as eating healthier foods and exercising more.
Funding extra care packages to reduce bed blocking is also sensible, but the cash will have little effect if social care staff are only paid £10.90 an hour.
Poverty pay has led to a stampede out of the sector and created a vacancy rate that can only be solved by a huge increase in take home pay. It is simply not a job that pays well.
Another failure has been the lack of structural reform since the SNP took over.
Scotland has a population of around 5.5m, yet somehow we fund over 20 NHS boards. Duplication and waste are rife.
At the same time, the NHS is struggling to keep up with the app-based digital reality many Scots take for granted.
The last time I tried to book a GP appointment in Edinburgh it took over 50 attempts at calling the number before a staff member picked up. The lack of an online booking system is lamentable.
Einstein once said insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
Pouring more money into an unreformed service and hoping for a cure is a living example of Einstein’s barb.
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