There appears to be a view in a surprisingly large section of Scottish society that profit is a bad thing, sort of naughty, something which you gain at somebody else’s expense.

In fact, other than in situations where monopolies exist, this isn’t true at all.

Profit is something which you might obtain (no guarantee) if you provide something which people want to buy and you do so efficiently, such that your costs are less than your revenues.

Profit is a good thing, it drives efficient allocation of resources, creates wealth which rewards savings and pays pensions as well as providing jobs and tax revenues.

So why is it that if a private company provides services to the NHS and manages to make a profit in doing so that commentators queue up to call it wrong and there are letters to the papers describing it as “obscene”?

Why is it that many Scots would rather the state provide services to five NHS patients at a cost of £500 than a private company providing the same services to the same number of patients at a cost of £300 - and managing to make a £25 profit?

All the negative focus is on the £25 profit when the saving of £200 is what we should be concentrating on and celebrating because it will mean we can treat more people for the same money.

You may think the figures I have chosen are fanciful - they are not.

I spoke recently to a Scottish company which provides a service throughout the UK which is vital for the NHS as well as being relevant to many other activities but is completely non-medical.

In England the NHS will buy the company’s service, in Scotland they won’t.

Why? Because in Scotland there is a central NHS run provider of this service which has a monopoly within the NHS.

The company I spoke to could provide the same service at a cost which is 40 per cent less than the internal NHS provider, but they are not allowed to because the NHS provider is protected. This is madness, taxes are wasted and our ability to provide an effective health service is reduced - nobody seems to care.

The Scottish Government and the newly revolutionised Labour Opposition in the UK don’t like austerity. Of course they don’t, I don’t either but, a country cannot indefinitely go on increasing expenditure faster than its income.

In Scotland we have a fiscal deficit which is worse than that of the UK and the reduction in oil prices has dealt a significant blow to our potential future spending plans.

The worse news is that a result of an ageing population we - like most of Europe - are going to see significant upward pressure on social spending in the 2020’s and beyond. We will need to think radically if we are to afford to continue existing services, still less improve them.

The political left sees higher taxes as the answer but that is a proven path to disaster, high tax rates eventually mean lower tax revenues.

The only way to deal with this is through greater efficiency. We need to find ways of providing more and better services at lesser cost.

Public bodies should set out the requirements for the services our society needs and they should monitor the effective provision of those services but, we need to harness the entrepreneurial vigour of the private sector and embrace the spur to efficiency which profit provides if we are actually to deliver a better society for our citizens.

- Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community.