Why SNP should be shamed by 'historic high' for private healthcare admissions in Scotland

On the one hand, this is good news for this country’s private healthcare industry and it may enable companies to employ more staff and expand their operations. On the other, it is yet another damning indictment of the state of the National Health Service.

While nearly 5,500 cases involved ‘self-pay’ patients – doubtless including people who have spent a sizable chunk of their life savings out of desperation to avoid spending months or years in pain on NHS waiting lists – the biggest increase was actually in insurance-funded admissions, which rose to more than 8,000 for the first time.

READ MORE: The scandal of Scottish NHS nurse forced to go private by long waiting list for urgent health check

69-week wait for ‘urgent’ cancer check

This latter group will include people who have essentially given up on the health service, no longer trusting that it will be there for them if they needed it. And few would blame them.

In July, The Scotsman revealed how an NHS nurse who was told she needed to be checked for cancer after a routine cervical screening decided to go private to avoid a 69-week wait for her supposedly ‘urgent’ referral. "I worry that someone could die because their cancer was not picked up soon enough,” she said. Thankfully, she was given the all-clear.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of private healthcare. However, it should be a more pleasant alternative to the NHS, not a matter of life and death. The creation of a two-tier healthcare system in which those who can afford private treatment are seen promptly, while those who cannot face life-threatening delays is a scandal that should shame the SNP.

As the party of government for 18 years, they cannot avoid their responsibility to tackle this ever-deepening crisis by taking bold decisions – such as, perhaps, introducing prescription fees for those who can afford them as is the case south of the Border.

But instead, it seems they prefer to watch the NHS crumble so that, one day, most of us may find ourselves paying for far more than just our prescriptions.