Herald attempts to scare with UK health data on deaths among mothers

Above, the Herald’s online headline this morning, with this:

There seems to be no room for ‘UK’ in the headline.

We don’t see any breakdown for Scotland.

The graph scaling seriously distorts reality to a suggest significant spiking in maternal mortality.

Remember, we’re looking at an increase of around 5 per 100 000 births over 3 years and there are only around 48 000 births in total per year in Scotland so there has been an increase in Scotland, if these data apply here, of 1, 2 or 3 at most.

11 thoughts on “Herald attempts to scare with UK health data on deaths among mothers”

  2. The Tories did not increase Healthcare funding from 2015 till the pandemic. £125Billion a year. The Tories are spending £1090Billion. 20/21. UK accounts June 2022. Last accounts published.

    Westminster are spending £Billions bombing the poorest country in the world. Genocide in Gaza. Killing thousands of babies. No monies for the NHS and the Drs in the south on strike. Life expectancy going down in the South.

    Get Independence for a better NHS and more babies born. Support Independence. Not the chaos and incompetence of Westminster governance and mismanagement. Killing babies.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Re “NHS spending” – the waste ministers govt. counted all the wasted fraud pandemic funding as ” NHS” spending, so really the actual budgets have been slashed so that only the likes of Mone, all the Tory VIP lane profiteers benefited.
      Dottieb

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  3. Like you I noted the absence of ‘UK’ in the headline but on reading the very detailed and straightforward report of the findings of the expert group noted that there were constant references to it being UK-wide data. At one point it specifically stated that the report did not contain a breakdown of Scotland’s figures. It also said that a fuller report of the group’s findings would be released later this year. This may contain a breakdown of the data for the 4 NHS bodies.

    The article in the Herald covered the various reasons for the deaths and did so without politicising the results. It was a very good article and in many ways a heartbreaking one.

    Perhaps you should rethink your approach to it.

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    1. It is, indeed, an article which reports a significant finding and which needs a proper examination of the reasons for the increase. Is it increasing levels of poverty and consequences arising from that, such as malnutrition, mental health and substance abuse, poor housing, etc.

      Unfortunately, because of the history of the Herald in reporting matters in ways which imply that negative aspects are due to the Scottish Government or Councils or simply because we live in Scotland, people are suspicious of another agenda. And that agenda is not about alleviating poverty, reestablishing good quality public services and local empowerment.

      Alasdair Macdonald

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    3. I think the approach is SPOT ON!!!
      The entire article has been framed to make it look like it is just Scotland……
      most people only read the headline and first paragraph so the damage has been
      done from the off!!!

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  4. Well I see in comments McArdle was chastised over it, https://archive.ph/NcVk3 which is probably why it is now retitled “Maternal mortality rates in UK highest for 20 years”.

    What I did find puzzling was her comment “No Scotland-specific data is currently available, but a full report will be published later this year”, but then went on to include a graph titled “Maternal deaths increase Scotland” comparing 2017-19 to 2020-22, but I for one am very suspicious of Covid effects beyond cause of death in the data.

    However the observations below it from Prof Knight and Dr Vousden in particular I thought fair and honest…

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    1. This report from the group seems to be a summary of their main findings. I took it that the full report would contain a breakdown of the data for the 4 parts of the UK

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  5. Perhaps a direct link to the report may better inform those here of the significance …

    As Alasdair commented upthread, “Unfortunately, because of the history of the Herald in reporting matters in ways which imply that negative aspects are due to the Scottish Government or Councils or simply because we live in Scotland, people are suspicious of another agenda. And that agenda is not about alleviating poverty, reestablishing good quality public services and local empowerment”

    I’m inclined to agree,

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