Late last year a news bulletin featured the well-publicised problems at NHS Grampian.
A television crew pitched up at Foresterhill in Aberdeen and asked some of the people about their views as they left the hospital. No doubt, they were expecting a torrent of criticism.
Instead, to a person the patients had nothing but praise for the health service.
The people were right. A later report found the big fall-out between senior management and clinicians in Grampian had not affected patient care. Of course, the reason it didn’t was because of the commitment of our health service staff.
And across Scotland there is now record-breaking public support for our National Health Service, which is working at its best ever level of performance.
Not the sort of headline we are used to seeing but nonetheless the certain conclusion from the one report card on the health service that really matters the opinions of the people.
Every single year since 1983 the National Centre for Social Research has interviewed the public about their views on and feelings towards the NHS.
The latest report, carried out between August and September 2014, was published last Thursday as part of the Social Attitudes Survey.
It’s findings were clear. Satisfaction with the Health Service in Scotland is now running at its highest ever level and is now much stronger than in England or Wales.
The conclusion was “in 2014, satisfaction with the NHS in Scotland was 75%, the highest ever recorded. This was significantly higher than satisfaction levels reported in England (65%) and Wales (51%). The gap in satisfaction between Scotland and the other two countries is now one of the largest since 1983”.
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The health service will always have to run very hard just to stay still. People are living longer, thank goodness that means there are more older people to treat.
More conditions are treatable, thank goodness that means that there are more procedures to carry out.
Of course, the NHS often comes under great pressure.
The nasty respiratory infection circulating just now is a case in point. It is a key reason why more people have been turning up much sicker at accident and emergency departments across the country.
In addition, there occasionally will be problems like the one in Grampian when action is required from the top to sort out a breakdown in local relationships.
And inevitably there are the individual failures where someone does not get the right standard of treatment. The health service is run by human beings and no system can be perfect.
This had been the case in the NHS since Aneurin Bevan launched his masterpiece in 1948.
However, for all the problems and the pressures, our health service is still the envy of the world.
And the Scottish Health Service is the one which is now closest to Bevan’s founding vision of free treatment for all at the point of need. That is why it carries the most public confidence.
Our health service performs more good for more people than ever before.
Waiting times for treatment are better than they have ever been and the number of people treated at accident and emergency is not just much greater but far more are treated within the four hour target than when first measured back in 2006.
Some health boards, such as Tayside, are even hitting 98% of people treated and discharged within four hours.
And the people know it and appreciate it. That is why there is record public support our health service and for our NHS staff.