From BBC Wales yesterday:
Only 52.9% of cancer patients in September started definitive treatment within 62 days of it being suspected, well below the 75% target. This marked the second worst month since the new target came in.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67488546
From Public Health Scotland on 26 September:
73.7% of patients started treatment within the 62-day standard, compared with 69.5% in the previous quarter.
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2023/
So, NHS Scotland’s performance is 39.3% better and almost hits the Welsh target but that remains at 95% here.
Has the Welsh Health Secretary been blamed? Who?
The Labour Government in Wales gets away with just blaming the health boards. Try that in Scotland.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This BBC Wales article published on 23 November entitled – ‘NHS Wales: Hospital waiting times hit record high again – is a ‘remarkable piece of journalism! This claim needs some explaining: it’s ‘remarkable’ probably only to those reading it that are more familiar with BBC Scotland’s output. The following extracts (with my emphasis) make the case:
It contains this: ‘WE CAN COMPARE with England if we adjust to only include consultant-led specialisms which shows 19.6% of patient pathways in Wales were over a year, compared to only 5% in England.’
‘There are 26,423 (3.9%) on the list in consultant-led specialisms in Wales waiting two years, but only 227 (0.003%) in England.’
Perspective, comparative analysis from the BBC – wow! The BBC Wales article EVEN HAS A GRAPH COMPARING NHS ENGLAND AND NHS WALES for ‘longest waits for hospital treatment’ going back to January 2019.
BBC Wales also provides an ‘Analysis’ written by its health correspondent. This contains perhaps THE MOST ‘remarkable’ feature of all – well at least for someone who more familiar with the BBC reporting Scotland!
The correspondent states (and this really does deserve caps!): ‘THE CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT.’ Now that is a novel concept for BBC Scotland! Reading this was a LOL moment!
From the same ‘Analysis’, we’re also given BALANCING information about the Welsh NHS and Welsh government (again with my emphasis): (i) ‘PROGRESS IS BEING MADE – but, overall, the BIGGER PROBLEMS DON’T HAVE EASY, OVERNIGHT SOLUTIONS’; (ii) ‘We’ve also seen the SECOND HIGHEST NUMBER OF THE MOST LIFE-THREATENING CALLS TO the ambulance service’; (iii) ’Nearly 14,000 patients have GONE THROUGH THE CANCER DIAGNOSTICS PROCESS TO BE TOLD THEY DON’T HAVE CANCER’; and finally this (iv) ‘Welsh government can also point to some of the LONGEST WAITS COMING DOWN – so PROGRESS IS BEING MADE’.
So yes, ‘remarkable’ journalism from a BBC source: the Corporation’s producers, editors and journalists are pursuing a very different ‘mission’ in Wales from that in Scotland!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow!
I suppose that, like up here, you had to search really hard to find that stuff.
So well, done on your mammoth efforts! 😀
LikeLike
To be fair, I doubt the Welsh government is ‘blaming’ Health Boards any more that SG do – The Tory opposition in Wales has tried several times to replicate in Welsh media that which has been so abused in Scotland’s media, turning stats into a political football.
The %ages are a useful tool for managers who understand the context – Once it is passed up the line and the data collated to derive an overall figure, it is stripped of all context, not that this in the least intrudes on the pearl-clutching by Lazy Winters or doom and gloom from Damn Baillie with guest nonsense from Disaster Gulhane…
LikeLike
In my own case John. Diagnosis of a rare blood cancer following a bone marrow biopsy to starting chemo injections – 2 weeks in October …. Fantastic support all round from both Wishaw & Monkland hospitals.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am sure all sufferers will be grateful to hear that Wales is worse. That is all SNP can do is compare to deflect from the horrors that they have imposed because of all the wasted cash flowing in the wrong direction
LikeLike