From BBC Cambridgeshire today:
An ambulance service is using hire cars to respond to calls amid claims of a maintenance “crisis” within its fleet, it has emerged.
The East of England Ambulance Trust (EEAST) has leased 15 vehicles to help during the busiest time of the year.
In October, almost a quarter of the trust’s 500 ambulances were off the road with the majority undergoing unplanned maintenance.
Glenn Carrington, who chairs Unison’s EEAST branch, said the trust was going through a “fleet crisis”.
“I’ve lost count of the number of my colleagues who have turned up to do extra shifts only to be sent home because there aren’t the vehicles available,” he said. “If ambulances aren’t spending most of the day queuing outside A&E, they’re off the road with maintenance problems.
“It’s clear that something desperately has to be done.”
He said the hire vehicles would be stuck in traffic without markings or blue lights and paramedics would not be able to rush to emergencies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67873215
The above report does not mention the Health Secretary or indeed any national politician.
In this, the latest in our ‘What if this was in Scotland?’ series, we ask that question.
Well in December 2023, BBC Scotland’s Lisa Summers stalked one ambulance team in Edinburgh, managed to extract the phrase ‘You can’t get to everybody’ from one young paramedic and joyously headlined that.
In the report, she of course managed to add, evidence-free:
Emergency Medicine doctors that I often talk to say they have never worked in such perilous conditions where people are dying who may have survived if they had only been admitted more quickly for the specialist care they need.
More and more respected institutions like the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, or the British Medical Association say we need fundamental reform of health and social care, and that starts with being honest with the public about what the NHS can and cannot afford.
In answer to that, Health Secretary Michael Matheson told me that he will outline long-term plans for the NHS and social care in the new year but he ruled out any prospect of patients having to pay for care.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67704510
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
”Heads I win tails you lose” – the axiom used to report Scotland’s Health sector , as practised by the UK media !
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”Stand by your beds”……. Given the very recent appalling report on the Fire Service in Labour run Wales and Tory run England you can bet BBC Scotland are searching high and low about similar incidents/practices here. Isn’t it amazing that these damning reports come out down south when politicians are on holiday and not present to answer in Parliament.
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Of course it’s all completely deliberate. Run down the NHS, say it’s broken, force those who can to go private, make it so bad and unavailable that people wil welcome an insurance system akin to what they have in the US, ie if you can’t pay, you die. I saw an article about how millions of children in the US have ‘no health insurance’. A very rich country, leaving children with no health care, just wow.
The EngGov and their dodgy pals at the Heritage society whatever it’s called, and other far right organisations in the US are chomping at the bit to get their dirty scheming greedy hands on the NHS etc, they are winning in England and they are coming for Scotland’s NHS next.
The complete running down of services in general in England, is all part of the plot to sell off cities to private corporations, lock stock and barrel, everything, councils privately run, services, infrastructure etc all built by and paid for by the people, sold off, and it’s very scary indeed. ‘Charter Cities’ though I think they have changed the name to fool people now. They have ‘charter schools’ in the US, from what i have read, it’s a draconian and very unequal system where the poor kids do not do well at all, of course the charter schools are set in poor areas
Plenty cash being made for those providing an indequate education.
Scotland better get the heck out of the dodgy Uk before it’s too late, that has to be stressed over and over to the people, otherwise wave bye bye to your (relative) societal, economic and structural security.
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https://www.gov.scot/publications/distributional-analysis-accompany-2024-25-scottish-budget/
“If Scottish and UK Government tax policy changes are considered together, almost all households will be better off due to policy changes announced in the Autumn Statement and Scottish Budget. Only 6% of households – almost all in the top decile – will be worse-off as a result of these changes, on average seeing their income reduce by 0.2%.”
OMG!
Wow!
No way!
You’re kidding!
Are you serious?
I can’t believe it!
Holy cow!
Unbelievable!
Quelle surprise!
You don’t say!
That’s incredible!
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O/T and with apologies for length.
BBC Scotland doesn’t miss a trick! On the Scotland page of the BBC News website today (4 January) there is this headline: ‘Nicola Sturgeon warns flagship care plan may not be meeting goals’.
The article is based on a contribution the former FM gave to a BBC Radio 4 series earlier this week called ‘Fixing Britain’. Given the nature of the programmes (see later), I wonder (!) what prompted BBC Scotland to include this in its daily news/politics coverage? The article quotes a Tory politician in Scotland with a typical ‘SNPbad’ comment so might BBC Scotland have been given a late Christmas gift?
This is what the BBC tells us about the focus and objectives of the series to which the former FM contributed (with my emphasis): ‘Baroness Casey, Louise Casey, continues her series looking at the challenges facing whoever wins the next general election. DELVING INTO THE REASONS WHY FIVE MAJOR SOCIAL POLICY PROBLEMS ON WHICH SHE HAS WORKED REMAIN UNSOLVED, she looks at QUESTIONS OF GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL COMPLEXITY, and asks WHAT WE NEED FROM OUR GOVERNMENT, AT EVERY LEVEL, TO MAKE THINGS WORK BETTER.’
The programme’s website tells us this about the 4 January 2023 episode which focused on men’s violence against women and children: ‘Speaking to people from across the political spectrum who have worked hard to improve the effectiveness and sensitivity of the criminal justice system’s response to these crimes, SHE TRIES TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF WHY THEY HAVE NOT BEEN MORE EFFECTIVE.’ I can find no follow up BBC News website article politicising contributions to the discussion in this episode!
On 1 January 2023, on rough sleeping – an area Casey has helped ‘fix – twice, first under Labour then under the Conservatives. WHY HAS THE PROBLEM – TWICE FIXED – TWICE RESURFACED?’ : ‘ she examines WHAT IT WILL TAKE INSIDE GOVERNMENT TO FIX IT AGAIN, AND KEEP IT FIXED’. I can find no follow up BBC News website article politicising the contributions made to this episode!
On the 3 January 2023 focused on children in care: Casey ‘asks what prevents GOVERNMENTS taking a comprehensive approach to the problem. And as she speaks to care experienced people and hears HOW THEY SAW SCOTLAND’S INDEPENDENT CARE REVIEW AS A STEP FORWARD, she examines what is preventing progress on implementing it.’
By chance, I happened to hear this episode and my reaction was one of ‘surprise’: here was a BBC programme affording reasoned, indeed positive coverage of Ms Sturgeon who was being profiled as a pragmatic, committed and thoughtful politician with something valuable to say about acknowledged and intrinsic difficulties in implementing major policy changes faced by governments – which in essence is the overall theme of Casey’s series!
Returning to the BBC Scotland piece, it quotes another contribution to the programme on children in care, someone (a policy officer?) from the charity ‘Who Cares? Scotland’. The individual is quoted saying “despite cross-party support, the PLAN HAD FAILED TO DELIVER MEANINGFUL CHANGE” and “So we really need to have a look at what we’re doing and how we get this back on track because we’re already four years into a 10-year implementation plan.”
In the same BBC Scotland article, this is followed immediately by: ‘Scottish Conservative deputy education spokeswoman Roz McCall said vulnerable children were “paying the price” for INACTION. “Nicola Sturgeon might not be fronting up The Promise any longer, but Humza Yousaf cannot continue to let Scotland’s children down and must urgently outline how it will be delivered, four years on from when it was first pledged,” she said.’
So let’s try to get some perspective: where better to look than the very same charity ‘Who cares? Scotland’? This is from its Annual Report for 2022.
‘FOREWORD: It’s no understatement to say that the period of our Strategic Plan 2018-2022 REPRESENTS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ERAS FOR THE CARE EXPERIENCED COMMUNITY IN SCOTLAND’.
We also learn about: ‘…. significant investment in Care Experienced people, from funders including the Scottish Government, Local Authorities, corporate partners, trusts and foundations and individual donors.’ and ‘Our independent advocacy service is funded by local authorities and, more recently, by the Scottish Government via the Advocacy in Children’s Hearings contract.’
And: ‘With funding from the Scottish Government, we processed over 1,100 requests for assistance for Care Experienced people as part of the Winter Aid programme, providing over £175,000 in direct funding for food and fuel to individuals and families who needed it most.’
Yes, the report does also state that ‘there is more work to be done’ – when is that ever NOT so – but the Annual Report throughout has a positive emphasis that is markedly different from the unqualified, damning ‘failed to deliver meaningful change’ from the same charity’s representative that the BBC Scotland article focuses on.
Source https://www.whocaresscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Who-Cares-Scotland-Annual-Report-2022-1.pdf
And in its new, 2023-2027 strategic planning document, the charity states: ‘We successfully supported Care Experienced people to secure the First Minister’s commitment to a root and branch review of care in 2016, leading to the Independent Care Review of 2017-2020. We welcome the conclusion of that review, The Promise, and whilst WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE ROAD TO TRUE TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE IS LONG, we are ready to play our part.’
The SNP government led by Ms Sturgeon introduced progressive, ambitious, radical and important policy changes regarding care of vulnerable children. The same politician in a radio programme focused on the challenges of implementing big policy changes in government – any government; acknowledges specific and intrinsic challenges and problems with implementation of this specific policy; and emphasises her commitment to stick with the task of achieving the policy objectives even as a back-bencher. A charity implies on air ‘failure’ whilst in other communications it offers a much more balanced, positive viewpoint. BBC Scotland amplifies the most negative comments without perspective, adds a dash of Tory outrage and pumps out a news story with a negative frame – politics in Scotland as usual!
From Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland in his blog dated 7 September 2021: “Our collective appetite for risk-taking and innovation, and how we hold public sector leaders to account, also needs to shift. If every ‘failure’ results in hostile media and political scrutiny, we will never encourage creativity, entrepreneurial thinking and risk-taking in how we deliver public services. I’m not suggesting accountability isn’t important, far from it. But we have to give our leaders the space, time and incentives to take managed risks.” A message for BBC Scotland and others likely to be ignored?
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Nicola Sturgeon on Radio 4 ? That rings alarm ells right away simply because its an outlier why would they want to interview her an SNP politician and why would she do it knowing how anything anyone connected to SNP is twisted by english media ?
I suspect its a plot , a plot to issue damning unverified stories about Scottish government.
An odd story in the Guardian today is about the Education Minister in england banning all OFSTED school checks until the OFSTED staff are trained to recognise and deal with teaching staff under stress.
This is being done because a primary school teacher is said to have committed suicide because OFSTED said the running of her school was inadequate.
Pardon me but my question is why was a person running a school if their mind was so fragile they would commit suicide on receipt of criticism of the level of performance of her school and how were her staff and children affected by her fragility.
I do feel sorry that she killed herself of course i do but i do not accept that it is normal or reasonable in any way to suggest she did so because of criticism about how she did her job unless of course as i say above she was already a mind of fragility that should not have been in such a job of great responsibility.
Many many get made redundant paid off etc every day but dont kill themselves
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‘… why would she do it knowing how anything anyone connected to SNP is twisted by English media?’
Candidly, the series is a serious, considered investigation of the challenges of government – all governments – in implementing major change policies. The programme ‘treated’ the former FM with respect.
The ‘twisting by English media’ did not occur in this Radio 4 programme: my negative criticisms were of BBC Scotland, the Tories and a rather disingenuous Scotland-based charity spokesperson. The Casey programme I don’t include in this criticism.
In the midst of undoubted media biases, I keep trying not to get too cynical – but it’s hard!
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