Desperately ill people having to wait dangerously long times for ambulances to arrive is nothing short of a national scandal.
It is not rocket science that the sooner paramedics arrive when someone is suspected of having a heart attack, the better the outcome for the patient.
Every minute lost increases the chance the patient will not survive.
Having patients in the most serious Purple category waiting more than 30 minutes or, worse, an hour, is tantamount to life endangerment.
There are plenty of reasons for the worsening record on response times. Increased infection control measures because of coronavirus is certainly a legitimate one.
But, as we have previously reported, in some rural communities patients can wait many hours for help to arrive because of a shortage of drivers and ambulances.
And too often the lengthy handovers at hospitals can see ambulances backing up at A&E departments, restricting the numbers out on the road tending to Scotland’s sick.
The Scottish Government’s health recovery plan needs to tackle these issues and more as a matter of urgency.
The ambulance service is carrying out a review of the demand and capacity to ensure it has the resources in place to meet current and projected future demand.
But there is an overriding need now for more ambulances – and staff to operate them – to ease the burden.
Humza Yousaf must act to prevent lives being put at risk because of ambulance delays.
Clean the streets
COP26 is billed as the biggest political event ever seen in the UK.
An estimated 200 world leaders are expected to arrive in Glasgow this November to thrash out details on how to tackle the climate crisis.
With the eyes of the world on Scotland’s biggest city, you would expect it to look its best.
No one can predict the often fast-changing autumnal weather. But we should at least ensure the streets are swept clean.
Yet a row has been simmering for months over who is to blame for parts of the city being litter-strewn.
Keir Starmer last week claimed there was a “waste crisis” in Glasgow.
That’s been angrily denied today by council leader Susan Aitken.
She insists problems in the city are the same as those in other big cities.
But Glaswegians will know there’s some truth in Starmer’s original point.
The issue needs to be addressed before COP26 begins.
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