It is little wonder that the RCN have raised concerns about the NHS being used for political point scoring in Scotland. This week began with the news that NHS boards had been asked by the Scottish Government not release A&E waiting time data to journalists as it had to first be “validated”. Fair enough, but the week then ended with the same Scottish Government releasing “unvalidated” A&E waiting time data as, although alarming, it was marginally better than the rest of the UK and so was deemed to be in the public interest. No doubt information relating to how many operations were cancelled to reduce A&E waiting times will have to be carefully validated before release?
Dr Scott Arthur 