Above, the Care Quality Commission’s inspection reports for health and social care in England in the last four weeks.

Above, the Care Inspectorate’s inspection reports for health and social care in Scotland in the last four weeks.

Note: The ‘ungraded’ are still in the process of being graded. THE CQC states: It’s important to remember that if a provider hasn’t been graded yet, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their service is not of a high standard. It is very common for new providers to remain ungraded until their first inspection which can take up to a year to occur.

I’m assuming such reports are not included in the English summary lists.

Two things jump out:

First, Scotland’s hospitals, care homes and other units saw 134 inspections and England’s saw 458, 3.4 times as many. However, England has 10 times the population. Inspections in Scotland are nearly 3 times more frequent. That’s a massive difference implying a degree of neglect and complacency in England.

Second, 57 units rated ‘inadequate‘ in England but only 1 rated ‘unsatisfactory‘ in Scotland suggests, bearing in mind the population difference, nearly 6 times as many units with serious failures to provide care. Another massive and disturbing difference.

I’m sure you’re wondering what the 1 Scottish case was. No surprise, it’s the Home Farm Care Home in Portree, Skye.

The failures in England are all privately-owned care homes, apart from one GP practice.