It is official..... Accident and Emergency waiting times in Scotland are up by over 17% (source Scottish Parliament Health Survey) from 84 minutes in April 2003 to 99 minutes in April 2004. This gives a new meaning to the initials NHS – i.e. the National Health Service has it become the 'No Health Service'. Take NHS Direct fpr instance the waiting time for a reply has moved from 2 minutes in July 2002 to 49 minutes in May 2005. Does this show that the money being invested in the NHS is being used for best value?

To help improve this, the Scottish Executive have put in place, a new delivery group to scrutinise NHS performance. The question is, will this really help?

The new 'Delivery Group' will scrutinise the health board's performance against new local delivery plans, and if necessary, intervene to ensure that targets are met.

The creation of the Group, within the Executive's Health Department, is a recognition that while the NHS has been successful in many areas, including much shorter waiting times for patients, the service needs to work in new ways to ensure patients benefit from the investment being made in staffing and facilities.

Health Minister Andy Kerr said:

"I have been very impressed by the dedication and skill of staff in the Health Department since I took up post last October. At local level too, staff are working extremely hard, and successfully, to deliver better patient care. Nevertheless, we need to focus more sharply to meet the needs of patients now and for the future. The setting and delivering of clear targets is essential. We need better long-term planning, and need a clearer approach to ensure that health boards are able and supported to deliver on those plans. These changes will help deliver both”

Editor.. But are new targets what we really need? Should it not be more Doctors and Nurses and less managerial bureaucracy and less targets!

©Scotland4me.net2005