This week’s story about the NHS Scotland App is not just scandalous in its own right but a parable which illustrates how Scotland is run as a constant search for differentiation from the rest of the UK, regardless of the public good.

In this sad world, the governance of Scotland is not primarily about a duty to serve but an opportunity to divide; never a partnership but always a competition. When this mentality crops up in so many contexts, it has to be called out for what it is – embarrassing, debilitating and damaging to Scotland.

If an App which, by common consent, would be beneficial both to patient care and the functioning of the NHS can fall foul of paranoid Anglophobia, then there is nothing out of bounds for a generation of functionaries who know what is expected of them by Ministers. It has to stop.

The NHS in England has had an App since 2019. It allows patients to book appointments, order prescriptions and see their medical records. What is there not to like for any government seriously interested in improving basic services for patients in the digital age?

Read more

In 2021, it was announced that Scotland would have its own App. After initial headlines were secured, the familiar pattern of delays and soaring costs followed. What few would have guessed was that another factor had intervened – refusal to use the English App as a framework (as happened in Wales) which the Scottish variation could be built around; cheaper, quicker, more beneficial.

This followed a “risk” warning, from an unnamed source, about the “political optics of........

© Herald Scotland