Intimidating road sign... Not for patients of a nervous disposition!

in four Scots could not register with an NHS dentist.

And there are shortages of speech therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists and specialist radiographers.

In 2013 the Society and College of Radiographers in Scotland warned of a shortage of specialist radiographers, stating: “They are leaving the UK all the time to go and fill the many posts that are vacant abroad.”

There-in lies one of the big issues. Health care is now a globalised industry; there is an international market in health professionals. For some countries it is easier and cheaper to recruit foreign health professionals, by offering beter terms and conditions, rather than training their own.

Meanwhile, in Scotland the NHS has become a victim of its own success. People are living longer than ever before and, overall, our population is ageing. But this comes at the price of more frequent and more complex medical care needs.

While the Scotish Government will rightly point out that there are record numbers of doctors and nurses working in the NHS, there is still not enough capacity in the system to meet demand.

It is easy to lay the blame at the feet of whoever is in power,

but that ignores the fact that the NHS was never adequately funded from its inception in 1948. Fundamentally there is simply not enough money to meet all the demands and expectations that are placed on the service. All these factors feed in to the increasing reluctance of doctors and other health professional to work in the NHS.

Perhaps it is now time for a “national conversation” about the NHS in Scotland and how it can be funded.

This requires our politicians, trades union, professional groups, pressure groups and service users to sit down together in a spirit of compromise and consensus to decide what kind of health service we want. One that we can afford without substantial tax rises to pay for investment.

That will mean hard choices: deciding what services we are willing to let go. There is no other way of sorting out the position we now find ourselves in.

In 2013 the Society and College of Radiographers in Scotland warned of a shortage of specialists, stating: “Tey are leaving the UK all the time to go and fill the many posts that are vacant abroad.”

Closed... Doctor’s Surgery in Drymen August 2015 7