On tonight at 10.45pm, BBC Scotland’s troubled Disclosure series investigates the deaths in Scottish care homes. Based on this quite extensive (1 400 words) taster on the website it seems there will be several fundamental flaws.
First, the methodology is a big problem. Only 3 out of Scotland’s more than 1 100 care homes feature in a study based heavily on anecdotal evidence from only 3 relatives. We are not told how these 3 were selected. The shadow of Labour’s Monica Lennon is there in the background as a likely source.
Second, all 3 care homes were privately owned yet little is made of this and there is no discussion of why state-owned or voluntary sector homes do not feature in their sample.
Third and perhaps most important if they wanted to answer their own question, why is the role of agency staff travelling between sites not considered despite the evidence of this already in the public domain.
‘Staff sickness hit nursing home care’ is the first sub-heading, and presumably answer, in the report yet there is no investigation into the possibility that this was especially a problem for the private homes which form their only sample and what effect their consequent reliance on often far-travelled agency staff may have had.
We know from BBC Scotland’s own report that the Skye care home outbreak was associated with ‘a large dependency on agency staff‘:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-52546673
Indeed, their own former Head of News, John Boothman, now at the Times, wrote:
HC-One, Britain’s largest care home chain and the operator of Home Farm, faces allegations that it paid insufficient heed to the [Scottish] government’s lockdown by parachuting workers in from as far away as Kent, 645 miles away, to plug staff shortages in a sector where pay is notoriously poor.
That’s just one case but an ONS study of 9 081 care homes in England found this:
These emerging findings reveal some common factors in care homes with higher levels of infections amongst residents.These include prevalence of infection in staff, some care home practices such as more frequent use of bank or agency nurses or carers, and some regional differences (such as higher infection levels within care homes in London and the West Midlands). There is some evidence that in care homes where staff receive sick pay, there are lower levels of infection in residents.
Finally, ‘Discharges from hospital into care homes with Covid’ is the second sub-heading in the BBC Scotland report. Though they present one case as evidence, there is no reliable evidence published, suggesting that those discharged spread the virus into the care homes or that they were discharged into care homes which did not already have decades of experience of infection control and should have known what to do.
So, once more, Disclosure Scotland lets us down, lets the BBC down but doesn’t really let itself down, after serial failure over the last few years to do anything properly.
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
The false narrative of “Scotland had a higher proportion of care home deaths than England” should really invite the question, “If that is the true, then why is the proportion if hospital deaths so much higher in England ?” (63.5% compared with 46%, using the same data).
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/latest#deaths-registered-by-place-of-occurrence
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/in-numbers-how-coronavirus-is-taking-its-toll-on-scotland?top
Odd that it’s presented from one side only.
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Interesting. Write a longer piece for us on this?
Send to talkingupreminders@gmail.com
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Initially there were not the systems of reporting in England that have been in place in Scotland for years with regard to care home deaths. They did introduce such a system but it wasn’t in place initially.
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YET AGAIN A CORRUPT BIASED NONFACTUAL REPORT ONLY ACTING AS A POLITICAL PLATFORM FOR UNIONISM IN SCOTLAND
THE SAME UNIONISM WHO HAVE STOOD BACK AND WATCH SCOTLAND FALL INTO POVERTY AT THE HANDS OF CONTINUOUS UNIONIST AUSTERITY AND LIBDEMS JUST STANDING HOLDING THEIR BEGGING BOWL
Sent from my iPad
>
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It’s not just letting people down, it’s sinister, a deliberate attempt to sow doubt and lay blame on the Scottish government, even by as you say, omitting facts which would otherwise reveal a very different story in fact.
These kind of programmes are taken as fact by those who do watch them. The Britnat state certainly have done a successful job in conning people, though far fewer thankfully now, into believing they are a bastion of truth, when quite the opposite is true much of the time.
Have they made a programme about care home deaths in England? If so would it be shown in Scotland?
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No doubt this will be what ABC will believe is a most excellent piece of State constructed propaganda,earning all of those responsible a wee pat on the back from their masters.
But on what i consider a far more serious development regarding MSM
I took the trouble last night of watching
The news output from ABC main&ABC Scotland, STV,CH4 & Sky
All Did not give the new infections for the virus in UK in their piece on UK corona
Despite ranting about such in Spain
& there was 685 no.new cases yesterday
In UK but only 3 in Scotland
What this clearly demonstrates is that from upon very high in the UK state that there is a Overt State propaganda unit of command and control structure
It is no coincidence that all major Broadcasters followed the same format
Regarding this
Accidents do not happen there are no such things as them
The State are moving up the gears now
And all the stops are being pulled
Any worth their salt in the media upon a little basic research can easily determine
That Scotland has clearly succeeded in total suppression of the virus and now in touching distance of actual elimination
Which only the GROWING no.of new cases in England can threaten
Scotland is a shining beacon to the whole world as to how to beat this virus
And all this merely demonstrates how EVIL our foes in the British State truly are
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The trailed bits I heard on GMS were about staffing shortages. Who, in PRIVATE companies is responsible for staffing? Imight be naive, but I thought that the OWNERS might have something to do with this. But, then, the OWNERS seem to have a PR service based on Pacific Quay, which is called BBC Scotland.
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Sufficient levels of trained staff to deliver care safely in line with guidance and legislative responsibilities (as with sufficient quantities of the appropriate types of PPE and an effective infection control regime) rests solely with the Owners of Private Care Homes.
Are BritNats like Kilgour now getting the return on their investments in the UK Union (No Campaign 2014 onwards) and The Tory Party with this attempt to shift the blame for this failure in the minds of the Electorate to the SG via the UKs State Sponsored Propaganda Unit at Pacific Quay to stem the flood of Civil Court Cases coming their way soon?
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ABC managed to use their question on FMs covid update to plug their Distortion programme. They are pathetic.
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On BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Lunchtime Live’ programme today (about 54 mins in) there was a report from Australia about the situation in the state of Victoria where Covid-19 cases are rising sharply. One of the “critical issues” is care homes, where the virus is “spreading like a wildfire”. Daniel Andrews, the Premier of Victoria was quoted as saying he had “no confidence in private nursing homes’ ability to stem or control the spread of the virus”. Worth a listen, (but just a few minutes later, there’s a plug from Mark Daly about tonight’s Disclosure programme which will no doubt imply that Scotland alone has a care home problem!)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l73j
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Indeed gathered as much from the pre-screening announcement on MSM.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/scots-stars-take-parts-in-bbc-film-exposing-care-homes-blunders-that-led-to-virus-death-surge/ar-BB179Zjt last week.
“The documentary Disclosure: The Care Home Scandal calls for a probe into where Scotland went wrong” is country specific not UK wide, and although undoubtedly there would be mistakes as they came to grips with a public crisis for the first time in the SG’s existence and the UK’s in a century, this little nugget gives the game away:
“It analyses claims that Scottish Government failures over personal protective equipment (PPE) guidance, virus testing and hospital treatment could have resulted in hundreds or even thousands of deaths”
Clearly #10 have instructed to up the ante on the propaganda, and with SG in post-Covid review undoubtedly scrutinising how private care-homes operate, the prospect of losing your milk-cow will infuriate owners and operators such as Mr Kilgour and fellow Tories.
I can only feel sympathy for the actors re-enacting the witness parts, I doubt any would have taken on the role even in these difficult times in knowledge it was a propaganda stunt, which it almost certainly looks to be.
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Actors need the money.
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No doubt as Ruth the Mooth
Would put
Put the boot in
Oh by the way i know where she can a genuine pair of ladies genuine SS jackboots
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Just for good measure ABC Scotland re reported the childrens hospital bacteria problem for some strange reason.
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Alex
Keep up with the ABC nomenclature please
Thank You
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People must by law wear a face covering in shops and on public transport and public transport premises such as railway and bus stations and airports.
ABC Scotland’s Andrew Kerr not wearing face covering at Airport Tut Tut A fine example.
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Alex
Usually tis the preachers that can never practice of what they preach
Thou shall not worship false gods and in his case the God is his master
Preacher boy Andy
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Not sure the are preaching given the publicity they give to reopening gyms awimming pools etc.
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