In the Guardian today, but getting no coverage at all across the BBC or ITV or the press:
Vulnerable eating disorder patients from England are being sent hundreds of miles from their homes to Scotland for treatment, as the number of available beds south of the border has dropped in two years.
Data from NHS England, which included the financial years 2020-2021, 2021-22 and 2022-23 and up to the end of May 2023, shows that 84 patients were sent from England to Scotland. The total cost of this was almost £9m. In the financial year 2022-23, 29 patients made this trip, costing more than £3.4m. The Guardian spoke to a young woman who had been sent more than 400 miles from Sussex to Glasgow, an eight-hour drive.
“There were five other patients who were from Sussex, and the majority of patients were English, a few were from Northern Ireland and Wales.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/12/england-patients-with-eating-disorders-sent-hundreds-of-miles-for-treatment
Though able to ignore the current China Crisis, BBC Scotland have no interest in this to compare with their fascination in 2020 with stalking chronic pain sufferers:
I’d forgotten about this when I wrote the earlier post on chronic pain sufferers but it’s worth a free-standing post to consider, though your gorge may rise, Fiona Stalker’s failed ‘stalk’ or should that be ‘ambulance chase?’
Stalker tweeted the above sneaky wee call for evidence, three weeks ago, then all went quiet. Serves her right, I thought, but no, she got two, including one well-known (Hughes) to Labour’s Monica Lennon, through her long-term presence in Holyrood committees.
So, armed with the ‘evidence’, Stalker wrote this:
The report is of course missing a few things, like contextual evidence to inform the reader and, when broadcast, the elderly non-SNP viewer.
I wondered three weeks ago, will she have bothered to search for any more reliable evidence of NHS Scotland’s performance or are one or two individuals prepared to cry on screen more her thing?
Might this, from 2016, be informative for the viewers?
England and Wales currently have fewer pain doctors than Scotland and Northern Ireland and that there are wide regional variations in the number of doctors specializing in pain medicine across England.
No?
Returning to the two she has now stalked:
Who told you about them? Have you checked if they are relatives of opposition MSPs? Are they members of the opposition parties? Are they members of Scotland in Union or relatives of members?
I might be able to answer the first question – Monica Lennon. No! I hear you cry. Surely not.
See this in the Express and Star:
Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon is co-convener of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on chronic pain (Andrew Milligan/PA) Ms Lennon said she has been contacted by sufferers who have “had to travel to England and pay privately for pain injections because they are not able to access their usual treatment”.
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/06/11/annie-lennox-demands-action-on-chronic-pain/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
On pain relief, the Mirror on 5 August reported on serious shortage of intravenous paracetamol – a key pain relief treatment – in England’s hospitals.
See https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-iv-paracetamol-shortage-sparks-30637443#comments-wrapper
Has BBC Scotland missed an opportunity for a Scotland-bad story here? Maybe not too late for some in depth investigative journalism.
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I read an online article that an ancient volcano in US may hold the largest lithium resource on Earth. The geology of much of Scotland is ancient volcanic. If the country is a source of rare earth minerals it had better watch out because the UK government has a strategy.
http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-critical-mineral-strategy/resilience-for-the-future-the-uks-critical-minerals-strategy
“Resilience for the Future: The UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy”
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They are already prospecting parts of Scotland, in the Highlands mainly for rare earths and sadly they do exist. They are already taking high quality gold from Tyndrum, I think the Aussie company ‘ScotGold’ (yep) gave the locals £250k as a sweetener. Of course Scotland sees non of the economic benefit, no idea where they company pays their taxes, and let’s not forget these companies use infrastructure that was paid for by the people, not a penny paid by the profiteers. I have a geological paper of old, I think war time, about Scotland’s potential mineral resources. Oh Oh if EngGov have it in their sites we are in BIG trouble.
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A BBC article from last week
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjezvydnrezo
“Lithium firm secures initial £53m from investors”
“Cornish Lithium plans to extract lithium from hard rock in a repurposed China clay pit at Trelavour Downs.
It said it intended to produce about 8,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
Estimates of the lithium industry’s market value vary, with one report forecasting global revenue worth almost $19bn (£15bn) by 2030.”
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Odd ! When talking up The Union , unionists emphasise the ”sharing ” nature of said Union . Hence English patients using Scottish facilities occurs without any political commentary .
Yet when Scottish patients make use of English resources – WHAM !
Scottish NHS Bad ; SNPBaaad !
I think this is called hypocrisy ?
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I’m sure it’s actually called the Hypocritic Oath – the one that the vast majority of journalists have to swear before taking up employment…
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