The evidence NHS ‘Scotland’ CAN clear the backlog

It’s so like the Herald’s Health Correspondent to be both pessimistic and Anglocentric. Today’s ‘wisdom’ is behind the paywall so I only have the headline to go on and, of course, her long trail of inaccurate reports on NHS Scotland.

If her report is about the NHS across the UK including NHS England, with its issues of resilience, then what follows has been a waste of my time.

Anyhow, what evidence [yes, facts, that stuff?] is there that NHS Scotland will recover? Three kinds of evidence: Staffing level, previous performance, government support.

Staffing Level:

NHS Scotland has 50% more nurses per head of population than NHS England: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00620/

NHS Scotland has 20% more consultants per head of population than NHS England: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/03/08/pension-rules-having-little-effect-on-nhs-scotland-staffing-with-20-more-consultants-and-25-more-gps/

Previous Performance:

Typically in NHS Scotland, only 2% or less of operations are ever cancelled due to lack of staff or resources: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/04/07/stunning-nhs-scotland-performance-with-only-2-of-operations-cancelled-due-to-lack-of-staff-or-resources/

The WHO in 2019 said: Scotland’s health system is to be congratulated for a multi-year effort that has produced some of the largest population-wide reductions in surgical deaths ever documented.’ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bjs.11151

Government Support:

Scotland has a unique system of improving the quality of health care. It focuses on engaging the altruistic professional motivations of frontline staff to do better, and building their skills to improve. Success is defined based on specific measurements of safety and effectiveness that make sense to clinicians.

Scotland’s smaller size as a country supports a more personalised, less formal approach than in England. The Scottish NHS has also benefited from a continuous focus on quality improvement over many years. It uses a consistent, coherent method where better ways of working are tested on a small scale, quickly changed, and then rolled out. Unlike in the rest of the UK, this is overseen by a single organisation that both monitors the quality of care and also helps staff to improve it.

Research Report, July 2017, Learning from Scotland’s NHS at: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/files/2017-07/learning-from-scotland-s-nhs-final.pdf

No doubt there’s more I could dig up but that should do.

8 thoughts on “The evidence NHS ‘Scotland’ CAN clear the backlog”

  1. I know all too well how you feel
    My own feelings are that we are swimming against the tides and currents
    In shark infested waters of deceit and indifference
    But all tides turn and they slowly but surely the tide has turned
    Remember when the tide 1st turns it is slow and barely noticeable but before long it powers and surges fast
    Better Together lot are really just King Canute hence their cries are becoming ever more shrill and desperate
    Expect switch of tactics soon and a change to more real dirty tricks by their masters now

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    2. This part of the article is quite apt:

      ” The president of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, Professor Mike Griffin, this week called on the Scottish Government to tackle the backlog of elective surgeries by establishing designated Covid and non-Covid hospitals, to limit the risk of infection to cancer and other frail patients.

      He also suggested that part of NHS Louisa Jordan could be converted into operating theatres to increase capacity. ”

      However, I disagree with the second paragraph.

      We’re making the same mistake in Scotland that they’re making in England with the “Nightingale Hospitals”, namely treating them as an overflow capacity, which is now more or less unused, rather than as the first line facility for COVID patients.

      Basically this is old knowledge that fell out of use, namely operating Isolation Hospitals. We have a highly infectious disease, for which there is no treatment, and currently no vaccine. The fastest ever time to develop a new vaccine was around 5 years, so the talk of 12-18 months is extremely ambitions.

      Even if we could eliminate the possibility of catching SAR-CoV-2 from a visit to a General Hospital, as long as they are being used for the front line treatment, the public will not believe that the hospitals are safe, and hence will vote with their feet by not attending.

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      1. There are apparently completely separate streams for Covid and non-Covid patients in hospital already, but I am in agreement the Louisa Jordan should be used as a primary infection treatment centre.

        On the vaccine: I’ve forgotten the little bit of detail I had, but this is a different technique they are using to develop a vaccine which is why it has such a short projected production time compared with normal – we will have to wait and see, but if it’s at human trial stage already, it’s looking good.

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    1. I am not going to read anything from MSM but my eye did catch this.
      ‘The Herald on Sunday asked all mainland health boards in Scotland for their cancellation numbers, but only four responded.’
      FFS do they not think that SNHS has better things to do right now!!!!

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