In the Daily Record today:
Scottish Conservative MSP for South Scotland, Sharon Dowey, said: “Despite numerous announcements from the SNP on their mission to tackle NHS capacity, the figures show that the situation is only getting worse. I’m calling on Humza Yousaf [health secretary] to get a grip on this problem. “It’s nerve-racking waiting on an operation and to be told that it can’t go ahead will be devastating news for those suffering a lot of pain. That’s why Humza Yousaf must make sure that NHS Ayrshire & Arran have adequate resources to deal with their patients.”
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/cancelled-operations-across-nhs-ayrshire-27821371?IYA-reg=8cb5bf56-7ace-4e9f-860f-ba0bd78585bc
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust cancelled 201 operations for non-clinical, ie ‘resource’ reasons in October to December 2021 (most recent data available). It serves a population of around 1 million.
Ayrshire & Arran Health Board cancelled 67 in the same period. It serves a population of 376 000 or 38% of Norfolk and Norwich.
Ayrshire & Arran’s cancellation figure of 67, for those three months, was only 33% of the Norfolk and Norwich figure, 201. Ayrshire & Arran was thus cancelling a smaller percentage of planned operations – 33% – than its percentage of the population of Norfolk and Norwich – 38%.
MP for South West Norfolk CC is Elizabeth Truss.
Sources:
england.nhsdata@nhs.net
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Talking-up Scotland 
Unionist MSPs and MPs have a problem with simple ”counting ” !
Or else the figures get all blurry when they show a more optimistic view of the Scottish NHS .
”’Should’ve gone to Specsavers , Sharon !”
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The fact that this is in the Daily Ranger, an allegedly, pro Labour publication, is yet a further sign that the unionists are in practice operating as a single party singing from the same hymn sheet, while trying to sustain the fiction that there are three separate parties. Support for Labour in Scotland slumped after 2010 and has not recovered and is unlikely to do so. The opinion poll data indicates fluctuating support, but the variation is largely due to people moving amongst the three unionist parties. Westminster and Holyrood election results show that there is significant tactical voting amongst unionist party voters to maximise the chances of denying the SNP specific seats. For example, in Ms Jackie Baillie’s West Dunbartonshire area, she has been sustained by Tories voting for her and for her pro nuclear weapons stance.
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5 more years in this Coercive Union we wont have an NHS.
Dissolve the Union.
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Is it just me or have others noticed in recent weeks a tactical shift by political commentators criticising NHS Scotland? There seems to have been greater use of local – single hospital or individual health board – performance statistics.
If local instances are being used for headlines in newspapers with a Scotland-wide readership then the scope for endless negativity about NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government and its health minister has potentially increased hugely – each new data release can be scraped to find the worst case!
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The BritNat state is on a mission to undermine the SNHS, Scottish government and the health minister, all in the run up to imposing their internal market act and bypassing Scotland’s democratically elected government in order to sell off parts or all of the SNHS asap.
There are very possibly sinister tactics being used by BritNats and other organisations, and corporations outwith Scotland to get their dirty paws on Scotland’s public health services.
The Tories, and Labour, really abhor that Scotland has it’s own parliament with a social democratic, democratically elected government.
Truss’s far right extremist talk is very dangerous for Scotland, and for Scotland’s democracy. Independence, or be assimilated into ‘charter cities’ and ‘free ports’ galore UKok.
Scotland still has a choice, for now.
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It is not amazing how the intelligence of Tory politicians at all levels continues to fall well below the average “due to issues with capacity and other “non-clinical reasons” “….
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Inbreeding.
They fight like hillbilly clans over nothing (who most resembles Thatcher).
Kissing cousins, then killing cousins.
They hate each other. They detest everyone else.
They only love money.
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+++++++++NEWSFLASH++++++++
Rain in the UK.
Sorry—-rain in England.
Sorry—-rain in London and the SE.
But, did they not want rain? Yes, but this is the WRONG kind of rain.
It’s wet and heavy—- with lightening,
+++++++++NEWSFLASH+++++++
England complains France is sending them human flotsam!
France complains England is sending them human sewerage!
The Rosbifs and the Froggies.
Think they would grow up.
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This type of cherry picking of performance statistics for one week for one hospital or one health board – without context or perspective – is base politicking.
So for some balance, from NHS Performs data for NHS Arran & Clyde wk/e 14 August 2022:
See https://www.nhsperforms.scot
The Board outperformed ‘whole of Scotland’ performance on 4 hour waiting time target for A&E admissions by 9 percentage points. Also, the numbers in the Board’s most recent week’s data, waiting over eight hours was the lowest since 22 May 2022. The numbers waiting over 12 hours was the lowest since 15 May 2022. And bed days occupied by delayed discharges in June (latest figures) in the Board’s two hospitals was the lowest since February 2022.
WELL DONE TO ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN NHS ARRAN & CLYDE!
On cancelled operations:
– at Crosshouse Hospital for non-clinical reasons: since April 2021 this has varied from 0% to 2.7% except for TWO week periods when the figures were 4.2% and 5.3% (the latest week). The Tory MSP has pounced on the latter, ignoring the exceptional 0% of course.
– at Ayr Hospital for non-clinical reasons: since April 2021 this has varied from 0.8% to 4.2%. In all but one week the figure was under 4%.
In operational management terms, in a highly complex system with demand varying in volume and character plus other imponderables, this is a remarkable (and improving) performance by the health board and its two hospitals in challenging times.
I trust the staff are aware of this Tory MSP’s cheap shot and remember it when next using a ballot box. They may also wish to be more ‘alert’ if they are readers of the Record, the newspaper which chose to amplify the Tory viewpoint. Did the Record even consider it relevant to provide additional context or perspective here – or only to happy (for reasons!) to just take at face value a Tory’s assertion?
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Just a wee correction, Stewart, the NHS health board is actually Ayrshire & Arran, not Arran & Clyde
(from an Ayrshire man!😀)
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Everybody who uses the SNHS knows how good it can be. Saving lives every day. 15Billion is spent on the SNHS in Scotland. It has been affected by the Covid pandemic. Until it gets back to fully operational. The Tories cut NHS funding from 2015 to 2020. £20Billion. Instead of putting funding up as essential and required. The Scottish Gov have to mitigate the Tory cuts.
The pandemic was totally mismanaged by the Westminster Gov. To concentrate on Brexit. Another Tory catastrophe. Healthcare workers from the EU have left. Now there a shortage of essential workers in every sector. Better to wait for a non urgent operation than die of Covid. Any non urgent operation would not do any good, if people died as a result.
Westminster Gov policies killing people. Life expectancy in the south going down. The first time in forty years. Austerity. Even more will die without the right support. 1+ years to get rid of the Tory unionists. They are destroying the economy and the world.
Another 3rd Tory loser getting in due to the corrupt D’Hondt system imposed by Unionists. They do not have a clue. Any support is dropping even further.
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