In a campaign to mis-represent winter death data and equate it with A&E waiting times, the media have once more concealed the facts.
From 2000 to 2023, winter mortality has increased from 23 379 to 24 427, by 1 048 or 4.5%, with yearly fluctuations in between.
In the same time period, the proportion of over-65s in Scotland increased from 15.9% to 20.1% of the population, a 39% increase.
So, despite a surging demand, NHS Scotland has held back the likely surge in deaths of the elderly with a range of better methods and performance.
In a frankly disgusting and inaccurate campaign enabled by the media, especially BBC Scotland, opposition politicians have been platformed to mislead and frighten the elderly with an imaginary crisis.
In a BBC Scotland report today:
Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Sandesh Gulhane pointed to the latest accident and emergency waiting time figures, adding: “All the signs once again point to another disastrous winter for our NHS under the SNP.”
Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie pointed out that delayed discharge reached its highest ever rate last year and remained high in August, affecting 1,808 patients.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-67206579
Readers will know nothing like this happens on BBC England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Englands propaganda war on Scotland continues the leading army of propagandists are the BBC generals in London who give the orders to the dogsbodies in Glasgows BBC Scotland
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Ho-hum……I mean, come on, what else can Sandesh say other than the same old same old……
If he’s such a expert , and thinks he has all of the solutions , then perhaps he should help out his colleagues down south where “all the signs once again” are pointing “to another disastrous winter for their NHS under the Tory party”…..just a thought.
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Why is it the SNP Scottish Government are seemingly so unwilling to publicly counter these persistent and outragous distortions? Surely they cannot possibly expect the BBC to change especially as I believe their lies are a major obstacle to Independence.
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The BBC News website article ‘Scotland’s winter death toll worst in more than 30 years’ has this sentence: ‘The A&E waiting time data shows that in the week ending October 15, 66% of A&E patients were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. The Scottish government targets 95% of patients attending A&E to be dealt with within four hours.’
The repetition – time after time after time – of the latter fact is now so blatantly intended to frame even news of any slight improvement or stabilisation negatively. This 95% performance figure is currently so irrelevant that the UK government has set a lowered ‘interim’ target for NHS England of just 76%.
The same BBC article also has this: ‘Meanwhile, 1,046 patients – some 4.1% – spent longer than 12 hours in an emergency department.’ Let’s something that The BBC would regard as ‘radical’: let’s put that 4.1% during one week in October in NHS Scotland in relevant context.
The latest 12 hour waits in NHS England and Wales taken from commentaries on official data by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) show this:
NHS England for month of September 2023:
Number of patients waiting 12 hours or more = 123,870
% waiting 12 hours = ‘I in 11’ patients i.e. (by calculation) c. 9.1%.
NHS Wales for month of September 2023:
Total attendances at Type 1/major emergency departments = 65,648
Number of patients waiting 12 hours or more = 9,600
% waiting 12 hours = 14.6% (by calculation).
(Note: the RECEM argues the figure for NHS Wales is an underestimate due to the exclusion of so-called ‘breach exemptions’: ‘RCEM Wales stands by its claims that the published Emergency Department performance data do not reflect the true waits faced by patients.’)
One can only surmise the impact it would have on BBC Scotland’s viewers/listeners/readers and specifically on their value judgements about NHS Scotland and the government responsible for the NHS in Scotland, if the BBC acted differently.
Imagine the difference if over the years the BBC had opted reasonably and objectively to inform by providing basic context and perspective.
Imagine if its journalists challenged Tory and Labour politicians in Scotland as to why their parties in government elsewhere – armed with the ‘solutions’ that according to Dr Gulhane and Dame Jackie Baillie are readily available to the Scottish Government – have more poorly performing health services when compared to Scotland’s on so many metrics.
Of course, BBC Scotland’s audiences for its news and current affairs output have a vote. Does BBC Scotland consider that context and perspective dangerous things for voters to have?
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WE REALLY NEED TO BE FREE OF THE UNION
THEIR FOLLOWERS SHOULD BE ASKED TO MOVE TO A MORE LIKEMINDED COUNTRY
WE CANNOT EXPECT HONESTY AND TRUTH FROM MEMBERS OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEM
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Yes indeed, a disgraceful yet unsurprising propaganda campaign.
They could have published a one liner, “But the biggest challenge for the NHS and social care this winter will be… BBC Scotland, Sandesh Gulhane, Jackie Baillie, and ACH-him…”
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