Almost 2.5 million Scots have waited too long at accident and emergency departments since the height of the Covid pandemic six years ago - amid fears that John Swinney’s SNP government is overseeing a...

A baby in Scotland requires to be transferred for urgent specialist surgery to England. A planned airlift is cancelled because this would mean the pilot working longer than their shift and so breac…

There’s now only a matter of weeks to go until Scotland goes to the polls to vote in the next cohort of MSPs. In many ways, it’s a very different landscape from the last Holyrood election five year…

John Swinney’s government is under fire after waiting times for A&E departments soared - with the situation facing patients branded ‘unacceptable’

After months of negotiations that culminated in a strike ballot and then ultimately an 11th hour breakthrough that saw strikes suspended, Scottish Resident Doctors have voted resoundingly to accept…

I fear it is far too late to wish you all a happy new year. However, given this is the first time I have been in touch in 2026, I will wish you all the best for the rest of the year to come, combin…

The pressing need to address difficulties the Scottish public reports in getting an appointment with their GP was raised in last week’s budget. So will new funding and proposals for walk-in surgeries ...

It has been another extremely important week since strike action was suspended by the BMA’s Scottish Resident Doctors Committee (SRDC), with a resolution being achieved, ye…

Despite months of negotiations around resident doctors’ pay, it is now unfortunately clear that we have reached a dead end. The Scottish Government appear prepared to – and indeed intend to &…

We are conducting a short, anonymous survey to explore how General Practitioners (GPs) in Scotland approach aviation medicine in clinical practice. This includes your experience advising patients abou...

Press release from BMA Scotland 

BMA Scotland sounded the alarm after a new poll revealed the extent of private medical care

I am a GP who genuinely loves her job. It is a challenging but wonderfully rewarding vocation. The team I work with are driven by an incredible desire to do their best for their patients. But to be…

News, discussion and interviews from politics and beyond.

We’d all heard the anecdotes and the rumours: whole cohorts of FY2s not getting into training. Half a rota emigrating to Australia in August. Hundreds of applicants per Clinical Fellow role, includ…

A new BMA Scotland survey has found that 7 in 10 resident doctors are concerned about unemployment from August.

While it may seem a very short time ago that last year’s pay rises started appearing in your payslip, we are now entering back into the whole process for 2025/26.  Central to how we procced wi…

I’ll cut to the chase: 4% and a paltry cash sum would be nowhere near good enough for Scottish resident doctors.  The DDRB has recommended that our resident doctor colleagues in England, Wales…

Press release from BMA Scotland

My last pensions blog was at the end of 2024.  I’ve been holding off in issuing another one in the hope that I could report good news and that everything was sorted with the McCloud Remedy but sadl…

General Practice is currently operating in the most challenging circumstances of a generation. Last week’s Audit Scotland report set out exactly why, in bleak detail. But, at the BMA’s SGPC committ…

Breaking down the days talking points with comment and opinion.

The latest news from home and abroad, along with sport, travel and weather updates.

Most of the time when people learn that I’m an A&E doctor they either follow up with questions about the weirdest things I’ve seen, or more commonly with comments about how it must mean that no…

Professor Heather Cox Richardson, historian at the Boston College writes compellingly about the misogyny used by the current Trump administration “in the attacks on American democracy”.  She e…

As IWD approaches it caused me to reflect on one of my own recent experiences and how women may face challenges in accessing healthcare. As a woman patient who consulted her GP about some concernin…

This International Women’s Day, we are called to Accelerate Action—to move beyond simply acknowledging gender inequality and to actively implement the strategies that drive real progress. For the B…

Covid-19 day of reflection

Covid-19 day of reflection

I have rarely been angrier in almost three years as chair of SRDC, than I have been this week. If you’ve not heard about the growing disaster surrounding MRCP Part 2 then the headline is: highly qu…