In the Herald today:
GPs in Crisis: The Ferret investigation in partnership with The Herald.
GPs are in crisis – patient lists are spiralling, surgeries closing and doctors in chronically short supply.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/23380292.gps-crisis-ferret-investigation-partnership-herald/
The Ferret, Scotland’s supposedly independent factchecker, returns after some time to be just another corporate media bitch, perversely trumpeting its relationship with the Herald, in pursuit of their shared ambition to promote Scottish Labour and do down the SNP.
The full report is behind the paywall but I feel sure they won’t be reporting these facts:
There were 3,494 GP Whole Time Equivalents (WTE) in Scotland in 2022. The equivalent figure for NHS England was 27,392.
Per head of population, all things being equal with England you might have expected 2 739 GPs in Scotland (1 tenth) but there were 3 494, 27.5% more.
As at 30 September 2021, the headcount of GPs in Scotland is 5,195. This is a rise of 74 GPs compared to last year.
Scotland has the highest number of GPs per head of population in the UK, research commissioned by the BBC shows. Analysis by the Nuffield Trust think tank shows there are 76 GPs per 100,000 people, compared to a national UK average of 60.
Only 6% of Scottish GPs report overload.
There is no evidence of a GP exodus.
We’ve been here several times before with this lot:
Regular readers will know that the Ferret ‘Fact Checker’ is hopelessly compromised by its association with the Herald and Scottish Labour. The contrast with the Canary, which I pay for monthly, could not be sharper.
See this if you need a wee, well big, résumé (face-covering recommended):
Today, above, you see the accusations levelled at Scottish Water and the First Minister, based on an unspecified number of email complaints. The accusations are then backed up by comments from Monica Lennon (Labour) and Liam McArthur (LD).
I don’t doubt there have been too many leaks for some butt he ‘way behind England’ suggestion is laughable and the wider context, not presented.
In October, I wrote:
In this typically Anglocentric BBC report today, England is only mentioned once so you might be excused for thinking that the 400 000 discharges of raw sewage into rivers, due to heavy rain, included Scotland.
It doesn’t.
On the 3rd of August 2021, BBC Scotland, informed us:
The number of recorded sewage spills in Scotland’s rivers and seas has increased by 40% over the last five years, new figures show. The figures the utility firm does have show that last year there were a total of 12,725 “spill events” – up 40% on 2016.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58040852
Note that grudging ‘the figures the utility firm does have?’ Anyone think the privatised English companies will be gathering more accurate data?
So, all things being equal, with ten times the population, you might expect England to have around 130 000 discharges but it had 400 000, more than 3 times as many.
Even more dramatic are the length of the spills in terms of hours. In Scotland in 2020, the spills went on for just over 2 500 hours while in England, they went on for 3 million hours, more than 1 000 times as long, pro rata. The English data do not include volume.
Not good in Scotland, I know, but as always, perspective in reporting?
In the Guardian in March 2021:
Water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers and coastal waters in England more than 400,000 times last year, Environment Agency (EA) data has revealed. Untreated human effluent poured into rivers and seas for a total of 3.1m hours via storm overflow pipes that are supposed to be used only in extreme weather to relieve pressure in the sewage system.
From January 2020 in response to a channel 4 special:
The disaster of water privatisation in England:
According to the Environment Agency reported on the BBC UK website last July:
[In England] there were 56 serious pollution incidents last year [2018], rising from 52 in 2017, the agency’s annual report said. Only one of the nine major water companies in England is performing at the expected level, with most likely to miss 2020 targets, the agency added. The report follows the agency’s announcement that Southern Water is facing prosecution after it was hit with a record £126m penalty package over “shocking” failures in its sewage treatment sites.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-48934421
Meanwhile in Scotland, according to SEPA:
In 2017, for the first time in a number of years, Scottish Water was not responsible for any category 1, serious pollution incidents.
A report in Open Democracy attributes the situation in England to privatisation:
The dire state of our rivers is just one of the many, many failures of water and sewerage privatisation. It is just one example of what happens when we hand over not just time-limited contracts for delivering water and sewerage services, but the actual assets themselves – the pipes, the infrastructure – to private companies to milk for profit.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/when-we-own-it-public-ownership-water-21st-century/
The resulting customer satisfaction:
In a ComRes survey of 199 Scots, published last July, we see:
- Thinking generally about the company that provides your water and sewerage services, do you or do you not trust your water company? UK 86% Scotland 94%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Provide a reliable service? UK 90% Scotland 96%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Ensure good quality of water? UK 90% Scotland 95%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Fix water pipe leaks in public areas (e.g. in roads, not in the home)? UK 81% Scotland 93%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Take action to protect and improve the environment? UK 78% Scotland 87%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Take away wastewater and sewage and deal with it responsibly? UK 88% Scotland 93%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Provide good value for money to customers? UK 72% Scotland 88%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Pay an appropriate amount of tax? UK 78% Scotland 87%
- Do you or do you not trust your water company to… Invest sufficient money on the water network? UK 73% Scotland 86%.
Let me think, who deserves the credit for preventing privatisation?
Finally, do not trust the Ferret’s weasel-words.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48191210
Talking-up Scotland 
“GPs in Crisis: The Ferret investigation in partnership with The Herald”. Yes, I saw that in the Herald and just about burst out laughing, which would not have been good as I was drinking a cup of tea at the time.
The Ferret and The Herald, more like the Fran and Anna of journalistic excellence. I mean does the Herald not have any journalists who could make up the desired outcome that they want themselves? Do they think The Ferret has a certain cachet?
Sadly, The Herald has become evermore cringeworthy as its circulation vanishes.
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There is also this report on Scotlands rivers and lochs.
“”The condition of Scottish rivers has improved significantly over the last 25 years and nearly half of our rivers are now in good condition or better. Almost two thirds of lochs surveyed are in good or high condition. Nearly 80% of ground water bodies in Scotland are in good condition.””
https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/water/scotland-s-freshwater/#:~:text=The%20condition%20of%20Scottish%20rivers,Scotland%20are%20in%20good%20condition.
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John,
Here is an archived copy of the article on GPs and Ferret investigation in the Herald
https://archive.is/50654
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IMHO any claims the Ferret may have made as “independent factchecker” vanished with their “report” on river CSOs – In all my years of working in this particular field, never had I read such contrived claptrap, there was more “shite” in it than any river in the UK let alone Scotland.
From the archive Legerwood kindly furnished, I see the exact same approach is being taken – “through the testimonies of doctors, staff and patients”, now we’ll spend 3 days backing it up with erroneous stats – It’s the printed equivalent of “Call Kaye”.
The elephant in the room, HMG, will again be studiously ignored…
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