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From an article in the British Medical Journal, a remarkable report of the impact of the Scottish Government’s unique investment in health visitors, across a range of outcomes including infant survival, vaccination rates, breastfeeding, obesity, GP workload, A&E attendance levels and dental treatment.
The full article is behind a paywall so unless you have access to an institutional (university, health board etc) account you may not be able to read the whole thing.
It’s stunning.
Here is an extract:
Urgent action is needed to tackle worsening health in children under 5 in the UK, the Academy of Medical Sciences warned last month. Poor rates of infant survival, increasing demand for mental health services, rising rates of obesity and tooth decay, and falling vaccination rates were all listed as areas to address.
The report called for efforts to increase the workforce for child and family health. According to the Institute of Health Visiting (IHV), England needs 5000 more health visitors to meet the basic requirement (mandated by regulation) of five visits between a child’s birth and their starting school.
Drop-in clinics have been scaled back in many areas following long term cuts in public health grants, and this year’s IHV annual report found that 79% of health visitors in England felt they lacked capacity to support children with identified needs. The average caseload is 409 children, despite 250 being the maximum limit recommended by the IHV and 300 by the government.
IHV chief executive Alison Morton says that, while services are variable throughout the UK, there is a “natural experiment” happening between England and Scotland because of the countries’ contrasting approaches to providing health visitor services.
“The investment in Scotland, where there is a more intensive programme of home visiting, is interesting, because when you look at various indicators—including immunisation rates, breastfeeding, and also emergency department visits—there are clear differences,” she told The BMJ.
In 2015, Scotland adopted a £40m Universal Health Visiting Pathway, which means all families should receive 11 home visits, starting with an antenatal appointment. Eight visits are in the first year of a baby’s life, and parents of children with additional needs are offered more. How many families receive all these visits varies between health boards, but around 90% of children receive each of the first four reviews.
Caseloads are smaller than in England; according to the IHV report 69% of health visitors in Scotland reported they have a caseload of 250 or fewer per full-time equivalent health visitor, compared with 6% in England. More than four in five (83%) health visitors in Scotland say they can provide continuity all or most of the time, compared with less than half (48%) in England.
https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q448
Who was SNP Health Secretary at the time of the launch of the £40m Universal Health visiting Pathway in 2015? See the image above.
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Shush for the union.
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Another worthwhile initiative by the Scottish Gov. Instead of spending monies on Trident, redundant weaponry, illegal war, Hinkley Point HS2 etc. This is what UK Gov should be spending money on. Tax evasion and Brexit are losing £Billions.
Looks like Labour support declining. Apathy and people not voting, Starmer is losing any support. The Labour Party is mucking up. Another one goal.
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And we have this from the hypocrite
Douglas Ross “DRoss”
I fear for my children after years of SNP rule
Did not read the article as its in the D Exp crap
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OT but as posted over on WGD –
Interesting… Galloway returned to Parliament for Rochdale, but the bigger news unsaid is the percentage of the electoral roll – For context, the 2019 election saw Labour win on 31%, Tories second on 18.8%…..
Galloway (WP) 15.7%
Tully (Ind) 8.5%
Ellison (Tory) 4.8%
Ali (Lab) 3.1%
Ooft, is UK politics in deep shit…
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Aye Bob….
Starmer gifted that seat to George Galloway.
He tactically approved a candidate that he assumed would win over the Muslim vote in Rochdale for Labour amidst them, Labour as a party , clearly supporting Israel over Palestine….. via Starmers words and actions (including his lack of actions in NOT demanding a ceasefire (by Israel) or publicly condemning the excessive amount of deaths of innocents in Gaza )…..Starmer’s main priority was more in not offending Israel…….in his mealy mouthed forked tongue statements via this atrocity being committed……
The Labour candidate then ducked up as comments were revealed to have been said by him that were against Israel…..he, the candidate, then further ducked up by apologising for his comments….. which for Muslims was a big No No…..Labour then assumed his, Labour candidate’s, apology was sufficient for them to not suspend him….then further comments by the candidate were revealed and only then did they, Labour, act and then suspended him…..but too late as ballot paper could NOT be changed so he was still noted as the Labour candidate…..a right duck up by Labour…..and yet we are supposed to believe they are competent and better than the Tories if elected as the next UK government…….no chance.
Truth is they , Labour, are beholden to those who are their donors….that then compromises them in not doing the right thing at the right time……their decisions are not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of those who will finance their election campaigns…..and the rot with Labour is from the HEAD (Starmer) down……..
NMRN
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No offence intended to Ali (Lab candidate) but he’s well off out of politics in England for now, it is imploding as the electorate recognises the whiff of Eau de Latrine, made in London – The irony of what Ali heard and repeated had been heard by thousands long before him including me.
None I know who had lived in Gaza on projects could believe Hamas commandos could conduct such a hostage-taking operation beyond Israel’s extensive security cordon and escape with their prisoners, but there is no doubt they brutally achieved their objective and back home to base inside 2-3 hours. Yet what troubled me most was satellites having looked the other way, 24/7 drones developing a headache, and zero response from IDF – Be in no doubt I deplore the pain inflicted on Israelis on that day, but this entire affair since stinks to high heaven of a stitch-up.
England’s political stitch-up may be less bloody, but it attracts the same degree of trust as Eylon Levy or Tzipi Hotovely, ZERO.
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O/T apologies…..
Michelle Mone Twitter:
“Many hundreds of stories have been written about me, but who is investigating what went on between Michael Gove and a PPE firm owned by donor David Mellor? Sounds like this story is just the tip of the iceberg”
“Tip of the Iceberg”….tell us more Michelle.
Oh dear the loose canon that the Tories are unable to stop just keeps on firing shots at them….as in her revealing information that the Tories, like Gove, don’t want revealed or rather don’t want any of her accusations to hit home with the voters…..now that she has her back up against the wall……she is coming out fighting against those (Tory party) who she formally supported and was one of…..all because she got caught out and does not want to be the Tory scapegoat or rather the Tory sacrificial lamb in this murky Tory fast track VIP lane for those ‘special’ people who they, the Tories, awarded PPE contracts to ……now they, the Tories, including Michael Gove are desperately trying to discredit her….yet who was it who awarded the contract for PPE equipment to the company she recommended…that would be the TORY party…..and The Guardian newspaper referred to emails between her and …..guess who….yep Michael Gove….the plot thickens…or rather sickens.
Her motivation is self preservation and thus the realisation for her is that in the grand scheme of all things Tory that when push comes to shove….you are dispensable and that your Tory peerage will not protect you from the party who are more desperate to protect themselves than you as an individual…..as per Gove seems to be in the midst of yet another stooshie….including him being currently investigated by the Parliament’s standards watchdog.…..as he failed to register VIP hospitality at a football match with Conservative donor David Meller…..but the real revelations here (scandal) are that during the pandemic David Meller’s company, Meller Designs, was awarded six contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitiser worth £164m after a referral from Michael Gove who was a TORY government minister….
Same Michael Gove associated with the Union Unit……oh well that’s fine….sure nothing untoward will happen with that….all above board (or not)….yet we have the sheer audacity of and the false bravado from Tories in Scotland giving it laldy about the SNP while their HQ is awash with scandals, incompetence and also as a UK government had the poorest performance in A & E figures within the UK last year (while Labour Wales was second worst…and guess who had the best figure….aye Scotland that’s who…same one all Tories, Labour & Lib Dems attribute as being the worst in the UK)…….
Voters in Scotland (Wake up !) smell the coffee…..ignore the media who are awash with pro UK propaganda….and start realising that the news where you (supposedly) are is nowt more than propaganda designed to destroy the SNP while simultanously attempting to restore support for any Pro UK political party currently assumed to be (but are they ?) the ones that will best placed to gain support over the SNP and thus take votes from the SNP….you have been warned…..time to believe the real news via what you both hear and see unfolding in their Pro UK state (and tis in a right state too mainly thanks to Pro UK political parties and their client media)
NMRN
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Always grateful to TUS for the time and effort in bringing some reality to Scotland’s affairs but WHY WHY WHY does Humza not stand up at FM’s Q’s and shout out about this every time the NHS is brought up by the Unionists? Must say am not a great fan of our FM but it is one of these very few opportunities to tell Scots how indeed fortunate we are. I’m sure both Sturgeon and Salmond would relish these chances but all we seem to get is ‘more money’ is being allocated which does not wash anymore especially with people on waiting lists.
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