How does the NHS in Scotland compare to the rest of the UK?

Healthcare will be a key battleground throughout the Scottish election campaign. The NHS accounts for over a third of Holyrood's budget and is perhaps the most prized public service in voters' minds. Parties have repeatedly clashed over the way patients experience services, with comparisons frequently made with the NHS elsewhere in the UK. They also invariably pick out the figures which best suit their arguments. BBC Verify has looked at four key measures to assess whether progress is being made – and whether it is fair to compare Scotland's health service with other UK nations. Waiting times for non-urgent treatment at hospital can stretch into months and years. The Scottish government has been trying to cut the longest waits of over 52 weeks, and ministers frequently point to the fact these have been falling month-on-month. Long waits have fallen for nine months in a row but a target to eradicate them by the end of March was missed, with more than 44,000 waits of over a year still on the system. This is an area where comparisons are difficult to draw across the UK. Guidance from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Public Health Scotland (PHS) explicitly advises against c