Sometimes it takes seeing a well-known problem from a different angle to truly grasp its seriousness and the urgency of finding a solution.
The crisis facing our NHS is no exception.
That is why we have embarked on our most forensic look ever into the state of play across Courier Country as seen through data on health service performance.
The statistics make for stark reading.
They tell of A&E departments stretched to breaking point, targets missed for MRI scans and other procedures and unacceptable waits for drug and alcohol treatment.
There has long been concern about the level of support available for young people struggling with their mental health in Dundee and wider Tayside.
The figures show Fife has also not been meeting the waiting time target for children and adolescent mental health services.
None of us is unaware of the scale of the challenge we face to maintain the sort of universal health service other countries eye with envy.
Tayside and Fife patients need meaningful data on NHS performance
Many readers will have experienced first hand the growing waits and cancellations that are frustrating at best and potentially fatal at worst.
Others will be feeling it from the other side as members of a workforce as dedicated as it is exhausted and disillusioned.
We will continue to bring you their stories.
And to make sure those with the power to change things never stop being confronted with them.
But each of those individual experiences feeds into a bigger picture of NHS performance.
NHS waiting times trackers feels particularly relevant to me this morning as a big bit of news. Sitting here with what I suspect is a broken finger, which only really became apparent once the swelling came down. GP phone appointment on Wednesday only available option right now.
— colin (@colinwfarquhar) July 25, 2022
One that can be pieced together from vast columns of performance data.
We learned in the pandemic just how much readers valued being presented these numbers in a meaningful way.
There is no doubt a well-informed public helped keep policymakers on their toes as we navigated the worst – hopefully – of that particular crisis.
So we are committed to keeping up that pressure as the focus returns fully to the wider decline in standards which, as the graphs illustrate starkly, were only accelerated by Covid pressures, not caused by them.
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