Today, ‘our’ newspapers in a full frothing feeding frenzy (FFFF) after yesterday morning’s BBC Scotland headlining of the story of supposed NHS policy changes:
Yesterday, both the Health Secretary and the First Minister strongly denied the stories. Today, BBC Scotland’s broadcast ignored that and the website does not give that important denial the status the rumour had:
What is the story?
Draft minutes of a meeting of NHS directors in September show they discussed having wealthy patients pay for treatment. They also raised the possibility of curtailing some free prescriptions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63701717
These would be policy changes to a long-standing system based on free care at the point of need. Such changes could only be made after democratic decision-making in Parliament. NHS directors are only managers. They manage the policies that politicians develop for them to manage. In some brain-storming session, an NHS director (Borders?) came up with a ‘crazy’ idea for them to bat about. Could that director have recently arrived from a neighbouring and more privatised NHS? If there’s a minute, the name will be there. Tell us BBC Scotland?
How privatised is NHS Scotland?
The misrepresentation of NHS Scotland as NHS England privatises 100 times more
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/11/28/the-misrepresentation-of-nhs-scotland-as-nhs-england-privatises-100-times-more/
Can you trust Labour with the NHS?
“Some private provision in the NHS” will continue under Labour, Starmer says
https://labourlist.org/2022/07/some-private-provision-in-the-nhs-will-continue-under-labour-starmer-says/
Can you trust the Cons with the NHS? Need I answer that?
Talking-up Scotland 
FFFF UK sake, here we go again . Cook was at the same caper on the eve of the 2014 referendum.
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I am surprised a certain person in America has not put her tuppence worth or she saving it for the time they bring her back in time for the referendum.
As for that one day a week practicing tory doctor he is the one I would never trust with anything like as he says wasting money even thou it keeps firms from going under.
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As you rightly say this is a matter of policy that is decided upon by Government Ministers not NHS managers. When they run stories like this all they do is show their bias and desperation to find anything with which they can tarnish the cause of independence. It is an embarrassing performance from the media given the lack of substance to the story and it further undermines their own credibility.
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After a day of headlining this on their website, phone ins, radio bulletins and no doubt the TV (it even made top story on the UK website page for a while and got discussed on LBC) the subsequent tweets from Tory, Labour and Lib Dem msps showed a total disregard for the BBC disclaimers. I’m pretty sure Martin G and James C in particular would have seen these responses on Twitter but went on the defensive rather than challenging what was said
In the off-chance James or Martin dip into this site can I say scrutiny does not frighten us but one sided scrutiny deserves to be called out. Where were the constant reports and discussions when Rishi Sunak met American private health providers? Unionists are fond of reminding us we have 2 governments in Scotland so this meeting and its intentions are relevant in Scotland as well as the rest of the UK. Where is your BBC report today on the praise for Scotland’s minimum alcohol pricing policy?
As for the constant insinuations that current and previous health ministers are failing, under pressure, facing calls to resign etc, this never happen in any other part of the UK as is often pointed out on this site. I’m beginning to wonder if race and gender discrimination are factors behind this Scotland only focus, surely it can’t just be because of the party they belong to?
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It actually goes much further than just a story picked up by the UK website later in the day, it was simultaneously posted in the early hours of Monday morning on the UK, Scotland and Scotland/Politics web-pages.
If that is not enough of a clue to the premeditation and collusion of the BBC as a whole, how about James Cook’s audio clip “Senior NHS Leaders, apparently given the green light to consider reform..” etc turning up first thing on Radio Wales Breakfast ?
The only remaining question is what James Cook had been tasked with obscuring with this patent nonsense, the rising awareness and attendance at rallies over the Supreme Court verdict, or is a report on NHS England reforms due out ?
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It gets worse and worse, I hadn’t realised this was reported simultaneously across the board. I see James C is now objecting publicly via Twitter to WGDs comment piece in the National – seems to be arguing that it only looks bad if you view everything through a political (indy) perspective. Then when folk argue his point and original intention he can lump all comments as a hypersensitive Nat pile on which will not accept any criticism. Ha, I wonder if he has read any of the BBC complaint section replies, the BBC really don’t like to be challenged
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Aye Cook was as obvious as was BBC collusion – I don’t sleep well so saw this propaganda campaign pop out of the blue in real time and followed it’s development throughout the day.
eg- James Cook got the call at the Perth conference to rescue the Tories from public embarrassment – By diverting the news to a totally NEW story HE created after BBC cameras had stopped rolling with assistance of a plant behind the crowd with a camera-phone, he successfully changed the news from deplorable Tories unpopular to Nationalist nutcases attack honest journalist.
Agent Cook is no less nasty a piece of work than his predecessor Agent Smith – Quelle surprise he objects to being called out for his and the BBC’s skullduggery over this episode, follow the timelines and it is incontrovertible, not opinion of WGD but cold undisputable fact.
When the thousand or so of BBC incontinent QEUH pigeons shower his expensive suit with the same shite he expects the public to believe, and his capability to read non-existent emails diminishes, just maybe Scots will cut him a bit of slack, but he may be singing contralto.
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If as you have reported the NHS Borders Trust Director is indeed the one that had initiated the discussion it merely confirms my long held belief that when relocating to Scotland (particularly some English people) come with the same intention as old warped colonialists with a view to converting us into their way of thinking. It almost feels that having already f***ed up their own country they are intent on doing the same thing here. We are all going down together mentality.
Indeed it seems a common theme of the media that seeks to demonise Scotland and the Scot Gov at every turn. Watching an horrific ‘Panorama’ programme about how the recent Tory incompetence has affected millons of ordinary people in the housing sector as owners/renters and the failure to prevent evictions and rehouse those given the lack of affordable social housing there was no attempt to contrast the situation in Scotland just the usual ”people across the UK are suffering”.
Unfortunately as much as we would like to think that most Scots are surely alert to this chicanery sadly far too many still consider what their newspaper/BBC is telling them is fact. I know many relatively intelligent people who still absorb this drivel as gospel.
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Good points Gerry, if I knew how to like posts I would have done this
I agree there are still many folk who believe everything the BBC say but I feel in my gut they are fewer than before. Hopefully most watch the UK wide bulletins before RS to get a glimpse of how bad things are elsewhere
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A Typical for LIARS ,CHEATS AND DOOM SAYERS
Only interested in their own SELFS
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I had a look online for NHS Scotland Chief Executives’ Minutes 21st September 2022 and couldn’t find anything specific. There are dozens of different board minutes of executives’ meetings covering a wide range of responsibilities and topics, but none of these is identified in any of the “news” postings, so tracking down the specific meeting is a “needle in the haystack” exercise. Of all the news reports, I could only find one – the BBC report – which specified a date (21 Sept 2022), which, of course, may or may not be accurate. Another reason for not finding the minutes may be that they are still not published, draft or final.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that the news reports referred to “draft minutes”, so it will be interesting to see how the final minutes handle the brouhaha when eventually published. Will they name who raised the 2-tier issue in the first place? However, I’d be surprised if any senior exec meeting (not just NHS) looking at future policies and assessing risks wouldn’t consider a wide range of options, including the possibility of radical structural change – it’s a routine part of risk management – but, if it surfaces at all in the published minutes, it may show that the topic was discussed and dismissed as ultra vires, since any such decision lies with the Scottish Gov.
It’s pretty clear the leak was politically motivated as it went public in known anti-independence media. Given that, the question for NHS Scotland Senior Execs is how they treat the whistleblower under their whistleblowing policies and procedures. Justifiable or mischievous?
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NHS Scotland Chief Executives’ Minutes?
BBC Scot say ‘directors’
Got a link?
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Try https://www.gov.scot/groups/nhs-chief-executives/ but, as I pointed out in my post, I couldn’t find the September minutes and suspect they’ve not been made public yet.
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John, also be aware that the BBC website article does not specify the name of the committee which is claimed to have discussed a two tier NHS. As my post states there are dozens of committees in SNHS all putting minutes online, so statements describing the source material as being from a meeting of “Scotland’s NHS leaders” or “NHS bosses” or “Scottish NHS chiefs” are at best lazy journalism. However the failure to be specific raises doubts about the authenticity of the claim. Could it be that the whole story has been fabricated for political purposes?
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