Lucy Dunn

Scottish government minister, Lorna Slater, has managed to survive a vote of no confidence tabled by Conservative MSP Liam Kerr. The circular economy minister, and co-leader of the Scottish Greens, has faced heavy criticism for her handling of Scotland’s controversial deposit return scheme in recent months. To make matters worse, hours before politicians voted on

Junior doctors in Scotland will strike for three days in July after rejecting the Scottish government’s pay offer. Two thirds of eligible junior doctors turned out to vote on the pay deal, and 71 per cent rejected the offer.  The 72-hour strike will take place from 7am on Wednesday 12 July to 6.59am on Saturday

Has there ever been a positive sentence that contains both ‘the SNP’ and ‘waiting lists’? New data reveals that under Scotland’s SNP government list lengths for children and young adults’ mental health services have risen this year, leaving just under 8,000 young people in limbo. Waiting lists nosedived in 2022, going from over 10,000 people

NHS Scotland has been hit with more bad news as new figures reveal that 18,390 patients died last year while stuck on NHS waiting lists. The numbers come just days after Public Health Scotland found that the equivalent of one in seven Scots are languishing on NHS wait lists. The latest stats show that Scotland’s

Scotland’s NHS has seen its waiting lists, once again, reach record levels. New figures from Public Health Scotland reveal that the equivalent of one in every seven Scots is on a waiting list. Care targets aren’t being met either, and the NHS is falling short on targets set for inpatient and day case waits.  A

England’s junior doctors will go on strike for the third time this year after talks with the government broke down yesterday. The industrial action will last 72 hours, taking place between 14 and 17 June. So far, BMA members have staged two walkouts, one for three days and another for four. In the last strike,

Junior doctors in Scotland have been offered a 6.5 per cent pay rise for this coming year after voting in favour of industrial action over a fortnight ago. Scotland’s health secretary Michael Matheson says he is ‘delighted’ to have reached an agreement with BMA Scotland, but doctors across the country are less enthusiastic.  In Scotland,

Ash Regan came third place in the SNP’s leadership contest, but the party’s ‘rebel’ candidate is still fighting hard for her policies – and yesterday she saw a glimmer of success. The SNP has announced that on 24 June it will hold an ‘independence convention’ to take the place of a de facto referendum conference

NHS waiting lists are getting longer and the government’s targets are still not being met. New NHS data released today has found that the number of patients on NHS waiting lists has hit a new all-time high of 7.3 million. The government has also failed to meet its target to eliminate 18-month waits by April

High street pharmacists in England will, for the first time, be able to prescribe medication, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced today. Minor conditions that require simple treatments may no longer involve prolonged waits at the GP – and patients requiring routine checks, like blood pressure measurements, will also be able to access these at their

The Scottish National party’s implosion brings good news for the Scottish Conservatives. At the Tories’ party conference in Glasgow, delegates had a spring in their step about their party’s rising chances. Poll results show that the Unionist parties are seeing their support gradually increase, while the SNP’s grip on power looks to be weakening, Meanwhile,

Is the truth about the ignorance of key SNP figures being exposed? Or is the party’s ‘inner circle’ even smaller than first thought? It certainly appears to have been the norm for senior figures to only become aware of party dealings after the fact. First Minister Humza Yousaf has said he didn’t know about the

Nurses in England have today rejected the government’s pay deal and have announced a fresh round of strike action. The next strikes will take place over 48 hours from 8.p.m on 30 April to 8.p.m. on 2 May, with no emergency cover. The Royal College of Nursing ballot showed that 61 per cent of eligible

Across England, around 50,000 junior doctors are currently taking part in industrial action over a long-standing pay dispute. The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), has calculated that junior doctors have watched their wages fall by 26 per cent in real terms since 2008. Now, they are striking for pay restoration of 35 per

More keeps pouring out about the Scottish National party’s culture of secrecy. As revealed by the Times today, deputy leader Keith Brown suggested in 2021, four months after the police investigation into party finances – Operation Branchform – had commenced, that the SNP should produce a monthly summary of income and expenditure. Two key figures,

Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP and the husband of Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, was arrested at 7.45am this morning in connection with an investigation into the SNP’s finances. Murrell was later released from police custody at 6.57pm without charge, pending further investigation. Police raided the SNP’s head office this

Scotland’s cancer wait times have hit the worst levels on record, as shown by a Public Health Scotland report that was released today. Under 72 per cent of eligible patients received their first cancer treatment within 62 days of being urgently referred in the quarter ending 31 December 2022, while the target is 95 per