“Travel is an essential part of official government business”

The Herald, 21 May 2023, news report: Scots Gov officials in £15k NY trip bill.

I am sure that the Scottish Government would agree that the Scottish public should be able to easily establish full details of the costs and carbon-footprints involved in such jet-plane international visits made by officials.

My wife and I have worked in NHS Scotland since graduating in Medicine. I retired in 2020 and my wife, who is a GP, retires next year. We are fully aware of the desperate struggle NHS Scotland is facing.  The NHS is strapped for cash and there are not sufficient staff to meet the needs of our population. Waiting lists are at all time high including for severe and life-threatening conditions.

Meantime, we are aware of invites to International Conferences, such as this one in Copenhagen.

The organiser of this Copenhagen conference, the International Forum  on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, confirms on its homepage: “Over 4700 participants from 80+ countries attend our International Forums each year . . .” This jet-setting must amount to a huge carbon-footprint:

Scotland’s National Clinical Director, Professor Jason Leitch was one of a contingent of Scottish officials and healthcare workers who attended this conference:

Earlier this year, several individuals representing NHS Scotland, took a jet plane to Qatar:

This was to attend this Conference in Doha:

This conference was hosted by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI):

The National Clinical Director of the Scottish Government was there and gave this talk:

Now, moving forward [or perhaps I should say back again] to Copenhagen, Scotland’s National Clinical Director was there to give the following educational seminars on behalf of the Scottish Government:

A dictionary definition of ‘Hypocrisy’:

In the Herald 21 May 2023: The Scottish Government stated :”Travel is an essential part of official government business”. However, no mention of costs were made, carbon or otherwise.

Important footnote:
One of the key elements of ‘improvement science’ is learning from experience.