1 In 8 On Waiting List And Record NHS Vacancies..Yet Sturgeon Still In Denial

Problem of treatment backlog started long before Covid and SNP's catch-up plan is failing to improve patient care

ONE in eight people is on some form of waiting list for hospital treatment in Scotland - that is 708,000 people.

If you're reading this on a bus on the way to work, the chances are that someone on one of the seats around you is waiting, filled with anxiety or in pain, to be seen on the NHS.

When I challenged Nicola Sturgeon about this last week, I was met with a level of complacency which was almost delusional.

It was the pandemic's fault, she said, and the Scottish Government has a catch-up plan which will start bringing these lists down.

No one doubts that the pandemic has led to a huge backlog of treatment.

But what the First Minister knows - and would prefer you didn't-is that waiting lists have been going up on the SNP's watch since long before Covid struck.