Rick Strang might sound like the former frontman of an 80s punk band, but he’s struggling to play a good tune on an old fiddle at the moment.

Punks liked to shock with their own brutal raw honesty – or perhaps utter delusion.

Mr Strang appears to be blessed by the former, and plenty of it.

Whereas punks might have imagined their surge into public consciousness as a matter of life and death, what Mr Strang does every day really is.

He’s a health troubleshooter hired to solve Aberdeen Royal Infirmary’s (ARI) crisis over horrific ambulance queues – carrying desperate patients they can’t offload for hours.

They waited a miserable 13 hours at worst to get in as ambulance stacking reached double figures; some died before a delayed ambulance turned up.

It can’t be proved conclusively that waiting kills people, of course; there are usually numerous medical complications to consider first.

Mr Strang spoke extensively to the P&J about his Herculean task in restoring humane ambulance waiting times at ARI, instead of this Dystopian horror show.

Something which transpired was that tragedies associated with collection or offloading delays were not recorded, or noted as possible contributory factors in deaths.

They should be – just........

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