Throughout the pandemic the men and women at the frontline of our hospitals have rightly been hailed as heroes.
They deserve our gratitude for risking their lives and for remaining professional and dedicated under the most trying of circumstances.
Yet, some in the hierarchy of the NHS have betrayed them.
The Sturrock report published into allegations of bullying in NHS Highland two years ago was hailed as a landmark moment, which would end a culture of intimidation in our hospitals.
Yet as we reveal today, staff in the emergency department of Forth Valley Royal Hospital have for years been bullied, victimised and pushed into silence to the detriment of patient safety.
Some nursing leaders in the department ruled with fear, promoting a blame culture, where staff were reduced to tears and forced to resign for the sake of their mental health.
Junior staff were not given the training they were due and staff shortages pushed them into accepting too much responsibility.
Staff and patients suffered, with errors covered up and good, experienced staff walked from the service.
If it had not been for the determination of their unions, Unison and the Royal College of Nursing, they would have continued to be persecuted.
The Board should have known there were problems at a grassroots level but better late than never.
Cathie Cowan, the chief executive, is to be commended for co-operating with the unions and commissioning this hard-hitting review.
Now it is time for action because our NHS staff deserve so much better.
A star in space
Scots pilot David Mackay has made history by steering Virgin Galactic’s Unity rocket plane to the edge of space.
The chief pilot, a graduate of the University of Glasgow in Aeronautical Engineering, has reached for the stars most of his adult life.
In February 2019, when he guided a Virgin Galactic spacecraft almost 56 miles above Earth, he said: “You get a sense of scale of the planet and you realise it’s not very big.”
But his dreams are.
Growing up in the Highlands in the 60s, David watched Buccaneers from RAF Lossiemouth fly overhead. He watched the moon landings and noticed most astronauts were former military test pilots, and joined the RAF to bring his dream of flying to space within reach.
Now, with the goal of making commercial space flights available in our lifetime. David’s latest space-flight is one giant step for mankind of which we we can all be proud.
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