In December 2023, NHS Scotland’s full emergency departments (Type ED) saw 62.9% of those attending, within 4 hours.
In England, the equivalent figure was only 54.7%
62.9% is 14.8% better than 54.7%.
That matters.
It means around 100 000 more, every month in England waiting over 4 hours, than if they had lived in a country with A&E performing like Scotland.
It means around 10 000 fewer in Scotland, every month, waiting over 4 hours, than if they had lived in a country with A&E performing like England.
The great statistics in public health communicator Hans Rosling says:
When I see a lonely number in a news report, it always triggers an alarm: What should this lonely number be compared to? What was that number a year ago? Ten years ago? What is it in a comparable country or region?
Scotland’s media love to follow the first part and sadly, for them and us, trumpet the undeniable decline in the percentage of Scots seen within 4 hours but, contrary to their practice with drug deaths numbers, they avoid the second part, for A&E times, and never compare that percentage with the equivalent in England.
That’s because it would point to a wider phenomenon and because the latter does so badly and Scotland’s better performance must never be linked to the SNP.
Sources:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Scotland’s media do not let FACTS obscure the propaganda message – SNPbaaaad !
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Is it Scotland’s media anyway? Most if not all are owned by companies outwith Scotland, and most are based in London. Therein lies the problem, though many countries have even state ‘media’ which is propagnada in disguise, most are not banned from actually broadcasting in the first place by the country next door…
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For the Scottish media a single datum like the percentage in 4, 8, or 12 hours is pounced on eagerly each month to trumpet gleefully of ‘another failure’, accompanied, as always by the three monthly quotes of ‘pure bad’ from the three ugly sisters of ConLabLib.
No report tells us anything new or makes a constructive proposals. Blaming is an end in itself.
Contrast that with the media for the other parts of the UK. They report such data from time to time, but with no quotes from Opposition or Government.
I think this is indicative of how poor our news media are. They simply take data releases and cut and paste them into the previous month’s article and claim this is ‘holding the government’s feet to the fire’. It is noteworthy how the terminology is always brutal and nasty – ‘banging heads together’, ‘heads must roll’, ‘knuckles must be rapped’.
Alasdair Macdonald
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#Shush for the union
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