BBC Scotland ‘balance’ the FM’s claims on increased NHS appointments with Con and Labour ‘playground’ shouts and of course not the hard evidence that he is correct with 120 000 and 10% more than last year

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of breaking the NHS. Professor John Robertson OBA author of 20 peer-reviewed papers on media effects The above is not, as they would claim, ‘balance.‘ That would be hard, published, statistics to counter Swinney’s earlier claim that more appointments are being met than last year. Here it is: Official figures from Public Health Scotland show that new outpatient attendances (a key measure of completed appointments) in the first half of the 2025/26 financial year (April to September 2025) totaled 653,805, an increase of 25,027 compared to the equivalent period in 2024/25. This aligns with broader Scottish Government reporting of over 31,000 additional appointments and procedures delivered from April to September 2025 versus the same months in 2024, supported by £110 million in targeted funding to reduce backlogs. While the most recent monthly data (up to 30 September 2025) predates early November, the year-on-year trend indicates higher activity levels, with September 2025 alone seeing 116,776 new outpatient attendances—an increase of 9.5% (10,136) from August 2025.