UNFORTUNATELY, your very welcome NHS feature ( Medics express alarm at ‘full and bursting’ Scots hospital wards , June 21) was barely able to scratch the surface of our current NHS emergency. Recent Public Health Scotland data showed 28,203 patients on an NHS waiting list for at least a year at the end of March, up 86.4 per cent from December 2020. Yet this overall figure conceals an even worse position for chronically under-resourced areas like Orthopaedics. Covid added to pre-existing shortcomings, creating a situation that can only be seen as a national disgrace. More than 20% of people will suffer from arthritis, and in Scotland we currently need more than 17,000 hip and knee replacements annually, notwithstanding Scotland’s ageing population.
How should we use Scots words? IN our Sunday edition last week, we ran a column by Rab McNeil headlined: “How did Scotland adopt a white horse with a big stick coming oot its heid as a national system?” It got us thinking about our use of Scots in The Herald. Senior Assistant Editor Garry Scott, who wrote the headline, says: “I thought it was appropriate to use Scots in this headline as Rab uses Scots terms in his copy. It was also a lighter piece. Would I have headlined a piece by, say, Iain Macwhirter or Alison Rowat, using a Scots term? Perhaps not.