SNP Health Secretary's shock admission of responsibility for NHS waiting times needs to mean something

In the event, he was reshuffled before the year was up, but the then director of the Prison Reform Trust, Peter Dawson, told the Guardian there would be a “good deal of regret” that Stewart had gone because he understood the prison system’s problems and had a “genuine desire” to tackle them.

At the time, Stewart’s resignation pledge was such a departure from the norm that it made headline news. Many politicians, of all parties, appear to have stopped taking responsibility for the disarray of public services under their control – heaven forbid that any minister should actually resign.

‘Blame Westminster’

So while Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray did not actually promise to resign if the SNP’s target to reduce NHS waiting times to less than 12 months by 2026 was not met, it was good to hear him say: “As Health Secretary... I accept the responsibility – I always do and I apologise when things haven’t gone right.”

Scotland’s many cynics have seen their stock rising in recent years and they may suggest that if, or rather when, the target is missed, the SNP will deploy their usual “blame Westminster” defence. However, Gray has a chance to prove his doubters wrong and demonstrate he is not just in politics for the ministerial cars and free football tickets.

Feel the pressure

If the parlous state of the NHS in Scotland is to improve, the minister in charge needs to feel under pressure to deliver and so must his civil servants. That will not happen unless they first accept their responsibility for the heavy duty they have willingly taken on.

Fixing the health service is, quite literally, a matter of life and death for some patients. It is also vitally important for the economy, with large numbers of people not in employment because of ill health.

If Scotland’s many problems are to be addressed, we desperately need politicians whose “genuine desire” to sort them out is, by their actions, made obvious to all.