North-east folk must be deeply concerned to learn little progress has been made to deal with the ambulance queues outside Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
According to the chief of the service, dedicated crews are becoming demoralised. No wonder.
What an ordeal it must be for them to have a patient in need of treatment but facing a wait of several hours before admission. This appalling situation is bound to get even worse as winter deepens and the victims of falls and infections increase the number of emergencies.
Lack of community facilities out in the shires, where many 999 callers used to be treated, is a factor in the problem.
If only short-sighted, cost-cutting decision-makers hadn’t opted to axe all those wonderful cottage hospitals about 20 years ago.
The situation isn’t helped by the fact NHS Grampian has the lowest number of hospital beds in Scotland relative to the number of people. That is indeed a disgrace which shames successive Scottish Governments.
Might I make a suggestion? Would it be too much to ask that Holyrood’s SNP Health Secretary Neil Gray spend less time organising to be chauffeured to Aberdeen FC games, at the Scottish tax-payers expense, and more effort on finding a fast and effective solution to Grampian’s ambulance crisis?
And please could you find cash, Mr Gray, to boost our pathetic hospital bed numbers?
Start with handing us all the money you’re currently spending following The Dons.
Let’s face it, fans are delighted their team is doing so brilliantly. But they don’t ask other folk to pay for their travel. Fit a sickener.
Moreen Simpson is a former assistant editor of the Evening Express and The Press and Journal, and started her journalism career in 1970.
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