19 MAY 2007, Page 24

Patient explanation

Sir: The health minister Andy Burnham takes me to task for my piece about the rise of the SNP in Scotland (Letters, 12 May). The average hospital operation wait is a fortnight longer than under Thatcher’s years, I said. England’s wait has improved, he says. He has perhaps forgotten that England runs out just north of Berwick. Thereafter lies Scotland, where the median inpatient hospital wait since 1990 has risen from 30 days to a scandalous 43 days. Proof, perhaps, that cash without reform doesn’t work.

Fraser Nelson London SW1