Helen McArdle

Recruitment of specialist cancer doctors to the NHS in Scotland is "dire" with many training posts going unfilled, a leading expert has said. Dr Frances Yuille, a recently retired breast cancer oncologist and chair of the Scottish Standing Committee at the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), said much more needed to be done to attract young doctors and to retain clinicians longer towards the end of their careers.

Scotland's largest health board has launched a new digital service which aims to speed-up diagnosis of a common respiratory disorder and cut waiting times for treatment. The digital diagnostic service for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) will bring together appointments management, clinical information, test data, and outcome letters.

The number of private GP clinics in Scotland has more than tripled since the pandemic as patients have struggled to get appointments on the NHS. Doctors warned that true scale of the "two-tier" healthcare crisis will be even worse as available figures do not disclose how many clinicians have made the switch to working full or part-time in the independent sector.

One of the reasons Nour Halabi wanted to move to the UK was because she "believes in the NHS". The American academic, originally from Philadelphia, had no qualms about contributing financially.

Why is Britain so sick? Statistics published earlier this month revealed that the number of adults aged 16 to 64 who were not working due to long-term sickness had reached a new high of 2,829,000 by the beginning of this year.

Water damage affecting an operating theatre in Fife caused a power outage in the middle of a patient's procedure earlier this year, according to data obtained by the Herald on dozens of "deeply worrying" building safety incidents across NHS Scotland.

As government officials prepare to answer questions from the profession, The Herald is launching a survey of our readers. The Scottish Government is facing a ‘six-month checkup’ on its reform of NHS dentistry which it introduced last November.

A Midlothian woman has been identified as only one of 12 people in the world to carry a newly discovered genetic mutation linked to the development of a rare and incurable lung disease. Bailey Lothian, 22, from Bonnyrigg, was diagnosed with Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) aged 10 after years of testing.

It was issued with little fanfare – but it attracted plenty of interest among medics on social media.

Alcohol deaths have reached a record high in the UK, but the increase has been significantly slower in Scotland.  There were 10,048 alcohol-specific deaths in the UK in 2022 - up 33% from 7,565 in 2019.  The rise was 37% for women and 31% for men.