From the Herald’s Tom Gordon, fed by one or other opposition party and with another schoolboy photographer triumph:
HUMZA Yousaf has been accused of presiding over a “terrifying” and “unmitigated disaster” after Scotland’s A&E waiting times hit yet another record low.
Opposition parties blamed inaction by the Health Secretary for a dramatic slump in the number of people seen on time last week.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19641119.e-waiting-time-performance-scotland-hits-terrifying-new-low/
In NHS Scotland for the week-ending 3rd October 2021, 71.3% of patients were seen in 4 hours.
NHS England and Wales do not do weekly reports but in August, the most recent figures available:
NHS Scotland’s A&E department’s saw 77.8% within 4 hours.
In the same period, NHS England saw, on average, only 66.2% and NHS Wales saw only 60.1%.
NHS Scotland is thus 17.5% faster (11.6% of 66.2) than England and 26.5% faster than Wales.
The real gap with England is probably even greater as NHS England cheats. NHS England starts the clock again after patients are admitted while NHS Scotland counts from arrival in A&E.
MSM in England and Wales are neither reporting these even more terrifying figures and certainly not, they never do, using photographs of their health secretaries to do so.
Shoddiest of all, Tom Gordon writes:
The army added only 1.8% to ambulance driver pool and they could not even do emergencies. There is no evidence of even one Scottish A&E unit overflowing. If there was the Herald would have a photograph like this from Cambridge:
To paraphrase the Dead Kennedys, ‘What you need my friend is holiday in Cambridge!‘
More on demonising:
Sources:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/nhs-england-covering-up-true-scale-of-12-hour-hospital-waits-1335856
Talking-up Scotland 
In a pandemic people will have to wait longer, Everyone realises that. They are still appreciative of treatment. 3million attend outpatients appointment in Scotland. 1million inpatients. Nearly the whole population.
Reporters are sick. A total harassment. Not comparing like with like. In abnormal times. NHS funding £139Billion. Increasing £10Billion. Over nearly 1/4 of all the tax revenues raised in the UK. An average of £600Billion++. Scotland raises £66Billion++. The Tories (ConDems) cut NHS funding £20Billion from 2015 to 2020.
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Surprised Tom Gordon couldn’t shoe-in a tsunami or two to augment the “terrifying” and “unmitigated disaster” from SG’s opposition, but totally agree his assertions re the Army are particularly ludicrous.
Tom’s latest contribution to the manufactured “NHS crisis” in Scotland’s media joins sexually depraved police officers, crime v minimum alcohol pricing, etc., etc., that negative propaganda conveyor belt must be close to blowing a fuse by now or the public throwing bricks at the substation.
Only in Scotland does this nonsense dominate the media.
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Meanwhile Andrew Kerr, BBC drone, is on the news right now, ASSERTING that if Scotland had locked down two weeks earlier than the UK, thousands of lives could have been saved.
This is a disgusting attempt to smear the Scottish government.
Scotland had no fiscal power to fund a lock down.
Scotland lacked the legal power to close Scotland’s borders.
BBC Colonial gaslighting at its worst.
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Tom is sometimes comedy gold!
To think that he is reduced to writing this trash to try and keep his job must be “terrifying” for our Tom!.
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The continued focus on aggregated, whole of Scotland statistics for A&E (waiting times) performance by the media and opposition politicians is, arguably, missing some key points.
It is failing to acknowledge that there is substantial variation in the performance statistics between main A&E sites, even between ones in major population centres. There is substantial variability between individual hospitals and health boards. Does any opposition politician or journalist challenge the Scottish Government or health boards as to why this degree of variability occurs?
From a quick look at the data published on the NHS Performs website a few questions seem obvious to me:
– comparing the number of attendees at A&E in late September 2021 with late September 2020, why have some A&E sites seen marked increases (e.g. Forth Valley Royal Hospital) whilst others have experienced little difference (e.g. Ninewells)?
As the A&E centres are not touting for business (!), could there be underlying causal factors in the ways primary care/ community care is being delivered by the different health boards responsible? Problem solving needs to start with understanding!
– comparing A&E waiting time performance against the four hour standard, why is Ninewells Hospital able consistently to achieve c.90% or higher in terms of the four standard?
Is NHS Tayside being allocated relatively much more resource by the Scottish Government – unlikely: is NHS Tayside allocating a substantially higher proportion of its budget to one hospital (Ninewells) and/or specifically to its A&E department than its peers. Or is the A&E department at Ninewells operating a different process model – or is it somehow ‘gaming’ the performance measurement system? I have no idea of the answers. For opposition to be constructive and motivated by public interest, such questions seem to be important to ask.
Are journalists and opposition politicians not curious? Perhaps they are content to get ‘SNPbad’ messages out there rather than enhance public understanding. Could it be because by enquiring they would have to acknowledge that within NHS Scotland exceptional A&E performance is possible, diluting their (simplistic) case for an A&E system-level crisis?
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BBC News 24’s ‘The Papers’ covered this story last night. (It’s now after midnight). It focused on tomorrow’s front page of the Scottish Daily Mail’s sensationalised headline of NHS Scotland’s latest A&E figures. One of the reviewers was introduced by the programme’s news presenter as a deputy political editor of the Scottish Daily Mail. At the end of the piece, the reviewer was asked by the presenter if the army was still driving ambulances in Scotland, to which the reviewer’s reply was yes, and the presenter’s response was one to watch! Of course you will BBC, but just not in England, or in Wales, or in Northern Ireland..
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