SCOTLAND’S NHS is in crisis and sleepwalking toward the end to its “free at the point of use” founding principle, while Wales’s GP service is crumbling after years of cuts, medics warned today.

Addressing the British Medical Association’s (BMA) annual conference in Belfast, its Scottish chairman Dr Iain Kennedy told delegates: “Scotland’s NHS is in a state of permanent crisis. Winter pressures are here 365 days a year.

“Since the end of April, over 58,000 patients have waited more than 12 hours in a Scottish A&E department: that’s 24 times greater than five years ago.