HELEN McArdle’s article “Only £30m of £300m waiting list fund spent as NHS failing to cut patient backlogs” (The Herald, October 16) is confirmation of the sheer scale of the challenge facing our local health boards and the Scottish Government.
Add to that the fact that musculoskeletal disorders, which encompass problems that affect bones, joints and muscles - like arthritis - will remain one of the leading causes of disease and injury in Scotland over the next 20 years according to Public Health Scotland, and we’re in trouble.
Back in October 2023, the nation was promised £300m to tackle Scotland’s waiting lists. In April 2024, the first tranche of £30m was released and Versus Arthritis learned that approximately £10m would be allocated to trauma and orthopaedics, the single largest portion of Scotland’s waiting lists. The Herald’s FoI confirms a smaller sum of £7.16m.
The clock is ticking. We’re another year on. Waits in excess of one and two years continue and we’re seeing an alarming increase in long waits for outpatient appointments. These waits steal lives ("Longer A&E stays see hip patients 'more likely to die'", The Herald, October 9). It is unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of people with arthritis are being left in debilitating pain, unable to work, their lives on hold and their mental and physical health deteriorating. Frankly, it is an outrage it has gone on for so long. Not only is there an urgent need for trauma and orthopaedic treatment, there is also an urgent need for greater recognition of arthritis in health strategy and planning. Arthritis is one of the biggest causes of pain and disability in the UK and this needs to change. We need innovative practice, increased surgery space and the release of this funding before the winter sets in, so local health boards are empowered to bring down orthopaedic treatment times and allow people with arthritis to enjoy healthy and happy lives, and not be left behind.
Lauren Bennie, Head of Scotland, Versus Arthritis, Glasgow.
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It's time to shame the UAE
YOU highlight the continued success of Celtic Connections ("Star line-up unveiled for 2025 Celtic Connections", The Herald, October 16), indicated in part by its expansion into using Glasgow's high-capacity Arena. Edinburgh celebrates its strong air links with Dubai. Arsenal and Manchester City are two of the English Premiership's most celebrated clubs.
The common link with all of the above, is of course,the United Arab Emirates. These are examples of the UAE's powerful presence in Scotland and more broadly in the UK.
Is it not past time for our politicians and our "great and good" to indicate at least unease with that country's presence across a range of cultural institutions?
Why? Because the UAE is funding the Rapid Support Forces that are creating mayhem in Sudan. The RSF are responsible for murder and rape on an epic scale and famine has been declared that threatens to become the worst in history.
Nicholas Christoff of the New York Times has detailed some of the horrors of this too-little-reported catastrophe and whilst recognising the complexities, suggests that we should be shaming the UAE's key role in arming the RSF.
This, it's suggested, could be achieved by highlighting the linkage of the UAE to the range of its high-profile, often sporting interests in western nations.
It might at least have been thought that this situation was more than worthy of political debate and of wider social concern..
Yet, perhaps Keir Starmer's rebuke to a minister for her criticism of DP World which had threatened to cancel investment ("Starmer refuses to comment on reports £1bn investment is to be cancelled", The Herald, October 12) indicates where real power is sited. And the weak position of the UK.
DP World is a key Emirati multinational.
Dick Webster, Kingussie.
Beware the phones switchover
I READ with interest Amanda Baker's letter (October 16) and her views on BT and its policy of cutting landlines.
In November 2021, Storm Arwyn caused widespread power cuts across North-east Scotland. I wrote to you at the time describing how we had no internet, no landline or mobile coverage and no 4G. In reply, a senior BT employee explained, in a rather wishy-washy reply, that vulnerable people will be protected during similar events.
So yes, Ms Baker is correct, the internet does fail and as far as I know will fail again in the event of future power cuts. During a power cut, we are all vulnerable should we need to call an ambulance in the event of an emergency.
Willie Towers, Alford.
The tragedy of New Lanark
I WRITE with some disappointment, on two counts, about the forthcoming closure of the spinning mill at New Lanark ("End of an era for spinning at New Lanark", The Herald, October 14). Disappointment, first of all because while this isn't on the scale of the proposed closure at Grangemouth, jobs will be lost and your article details the impact not just of the four jobs that will go, but the knock-on effect that this will have on the woollen industry in Scotland. Secondly, this means that we will import yet more textiles and clothing from other parts of the world where production costs are much lower. However, it isn't just that production costs are lower; quality is much, much lower and employee pay and conditions are at rock bottom.
Major stores on our high streets used to have about 90% of their products made in the UK; it will now be about 90% made overseas. What meaningful employment is left in the UK if all this work has gone?
There's a major movement towards sustainability, with many of us knitting at home (not just old grannies like me) and making their own clothes because of the lack of quality in the shops. However, if New Lanark goes ahead and closes the spinning facility not only are we losing an important supplier of yarn but children, indeed all of us, are losing the experience of seeing, and learning about, traditional skills.
Patricia Fort, Glasgow.
The conkering villains
I HAVE been concerned for some considerable time that the BBC News At One is little more than that day's English regional news portrayed as British.That is intolerable as it encroaches further into BBC TV Scotland's Reporting Scotland, which has had to resort to effectively giving us a trailer for its main coverage at 6.30pm.
This nonsense reached its climax on Tuesday (October 15) when the BBC featured the World Conker Championships in Northamptonshire, but completely ignored the Scottish concerns about the return of Alex Salmond's body from North Macedonia.
John V Lloyd, Inverkeithing.
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