From stewartb:
In response to: ‘Boris Johnson’s abundant failure in government as his NHS England A&E waiting time figures for December plummet to new depths below 70%!’, yesterday:
I too have no problem with your persistence on this topic. The BBC’s mis-reporting frequently angers (and frustrates) me. The A&E example you reference today was so blatant that it goaded me into this complaint (below) to the BBC – yet another waste of time, beyond perhaps some nuisance value, but I felt just a little better at the time of submitting it.
Subject of complaint: this online article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51046616
‘The article fails to report the crucial distinction between performance of Type 1 A&E Departments and ‘all A&E departments’ in NHS England. A Type 1 Department (Major A&E Department) is a consultant led 24 hour service with full resuscitation facilities etc.
Whilst this source states that “79.8% of patients were seen within 4 hours in all A&E departments this month”(Dec 2019) it also reports that for major, Type 1 A&E Departments in England, only “68.6% of patients were seen within 4 hours.”
The article asks: “What about the rest of the UK?” It then includes a very limited, data free reference to A&E in Scotland, stating only: “Scotland’s figures for the festive period are not available yet either – but November was one of the worst months on record.”
Candidly, this wholly fails to inform readers of the actual significance of comparative, cross-UK performances. It also misinforms: waiting time performance data for Scotland’s majorA&E Departments are updated weekly and so late December data had already been published.
Source: https://www.nhsperforms.scot/hospital-data?hospitalid=59
For those of Scotland’s Emergency Departments comparable to England’s Type 1 Departments, the % of patients waiting less than 4 hours was 85% at end December 2019. Remember, the equivalent for NHS England was just 68.6%! Is this really not important to report?
The Nov figure in Scotland for ALL Emergency Departments was 85.5% compared to 79.8% (Dec) and 81.4% (Nov) for the equivalent Departments in England. So why was the actual NHS Scotland figure not given for comparison?
My complaint here is of ‘poor quality’ but I am sorely tempted to levy the much more serious charge of BBC ‘bias by omission’!’
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Channel 4 news last night reported both sets of figures for A&E in NHS England making it clear that the lower figure was for major A&E departments in NHS England
The BBC is misleading/hiding the truth from all parts of the UK.
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Did they use the Type 1, 68% figure?
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If you are referring to the CH4 report then yes they quoted the 68% figure.
https://www.channel4.com/news/nhs-publishes-worst-figures-ever-despite-mild-winter
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Dear complainant,
Here at the Boris Broadcasting Corp we feel your pain, BUT, as custodians of Truthiness, we reserve the right to promulgate, only and all, the news fit for the hero’s of Brexit (God bless Farage), and to keep our wonderous island of Greater England together, we may need to alter a few awkward factoids—in the interests of serenity.
We had thought to sent you a Jimmy Saville T-shirt to help salve your greetin’ face, but are saving them for members of the more deserving “Moggy Youth League” (all hail Boris)..
Finally a word from our sponsor—“Greeting from Mustique. Me and whitzername “the Burd”, have had a great time canoodling with Count Von Bismarck, and divvying up Europe (just for fun)–we get France, they get Poland–sometimes the future is just like the past”!
P.S–Now we know where you live!——- Expect a wee midnight chap!
BoBrCo.
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Good stuff though I may have misunderstood what a wee midnight chap is.
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John, a “chap” where I was brought up, was a chap on the door.
Sorry to be obscure, but other kind of “chaps” may be available!
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Wee chap? Yeh, I knew that but my strange mind threw up a different image.
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One of my school chums was known as Wee Chap yet he wasn’t especially wee.😗
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Don’t forget the timing difference between A&E dep’ts in Scotland and England. Scotland starts the clock when a patient is first registered on arrival, whereas in England the clock starts when patients are in triage (it’s a while since I worked with A&E staff so it may be after the patient leaves triage), thereby cutting out the preliminary waiting time until specialist staff become available. In many cases, this initial waiting time is the most substantial element in a patient’s visit, so the comparison between NHS Scotland and NHS England is even more grossly distorted.
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