From stewartb
Today on the BBC News website’s ‘health’ section we find this: ‘First long-acting injection for HIV approved’
The article tells us that ‘Thousands of people with HIV will now be offered a new long-acting injection to manage their condition if they would prefer to stop taking daily pills’; ‘Charities have welcomed the approval of the treatment by the NHS drugs watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’; and ‘An estimated 13,000 people in England could make the switch.’ All positive news!
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59330979
This news was also covered in similar terms this morning on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme albeit even more explicitly reported as something of benefit being introduced in England. Well done NHS England!
But listening to C4 News tonight I learned that the same innovation had been approved for use by NHS Scotland a month ago!
And with a little research we find that on 11 October 2021 the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) announced this: ‘Cabotegravir (Vocabria), in combination with rilpivirine, was accepted for the treatment of adults living with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV 1) infection. Cabotegravir and rilpivirine are administered by injection into a muscle, by a healthcare professional, every two months. This is the first long-acting injectable treatment for HIV. Some people may prefer this to the current daily pill-based treatment options.’
So this beneficial health innovation in England was deemed newsworthy on two major UK news programmes. Anyone remember this being covered by BBC Scotland in October?
I would hate to have missed any positivity coming from the public service broadcaster about NHS Scotland, however rare!
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
No coconuts ( brown envelopes or nefarious appointments ) to be won here
For any ABC( BBC) researchers,editors or reporter’s here
Quite the reverse and more like a huge ink blot upon their employment CV
if they did indeed report upon such
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This comes under the heading ” News where you are but not news where we are ” !
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Interestingly enough I had my booster and flu jab a couple of weeks back. I thought I wasn’t going to get the booster as it was only five months since I’d had my second vaccine jag. The Nurse told me that the time limit had been recently reduced in Scotland. Imagine my surprise the next week when it was reported on the BBC that England was reducing their time between vaccine and booster to five weeks and that Scotland would be following that example.
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