The absence rate among NHS Scotland nurses and midwives has fallen again in week-ending 21st September to just over half that at the most recent peak in January 2021.
Absence among care home staff has fallen sharply, to 857 in week-ending 14th September after peaking at 992 in the previous week.
I’m not questioning how busy all are, just how much of a crisis we’re in. Could it be, ever so slightly, media constructed?
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
Grov Gen Hi Jack states that we should be down on our bellies in grovelling thanks for him & Westmonster providing all these wondrous nurses.
“Without me, Your Glorious Master Debater, youse lot would all be living in caves and eating whelks”. “Thanks be to Mighty Blighty and old Engerlund”.
……Signed,
His Mighty Imperiousness,
G Gen Hi Jack esq… arg… umi… spyug… cv3
Laudanum Castle,
By sea.
Londinium.
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Totally media constructed. They have adopted the Boris Johnson science follows my model approach, better known as “Gordon Dewar syndrome” north of the border..
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The role of the media is certainly central to this, but
1. there is no comparison with what is going on in England and Wales, where there are similar (if not worse) problems. But then again, we are in a ‘war’ situation. If we cannot do anything about the media then we have to live with it. BUT, why are these points not raised in Holyrood when such as the dreadful Cole-Hamilton is fulminating, Ross is doing his IM Jolly routine without the jokes and Anas is being … well Anas. This could be portrayed as looking for excuses, but on the other hand, “in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king”, so if we are doing better why the hell not say so?!?!?!
2. despite the fall in cases John, there is still a problem with A&E – it might be worse elsewhere but our own stats tell us, it’s just not good – and bringing the Army in to help out the Ambulance Service tells its own story. We really do need to get away from comparisons with E&W who are probably among the worst in Europe. Why not set challenging aims and see how those countries do it?
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I suspect that the increase in absences for nurses and other care workers coincided with the increases in infections for young people once the schools went back. Since many nurses and carers are parents of school age children, they probably had to isolate.
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