stewartb
The Scottish Daily Express front page article – by its Scottish Political Reporter – is a disgraceful example of misrepresentation. It seeks to link excess deaths following a visit to A&E with NHS Scotland missing its four hour standard of 95% of patients being discharged, transferred or admitted within four hours.
The postulated causal link between an increase in excess deaths and A&E attendance advanced by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) is concerned primarily with time periods of over eight and more significantly, over 12 hours. The Express fails to make this clear despite there being multiple and diverse published sources explaining it.
From the RCEM Acute Insight Series: Crowding and its Consequences (November 2021): ‘In 2021 so far, of those who waited 8-12 hours in an ED, there have been 303 excess deaths in Scotland and 709 excess deaths in Wales. In England and Northern Ireland, if we assume that the harm suffered between eight to twelve hours continues in patients who stay longer than 12 hours, then 4519 excess deaths occurred in England and 566 excess deaths occurred in Northern Ireland in 2020-21. This may be an underestimate, as stays longer than 12 hours would be expected to confer a greater risk of death.’
BMJ website News item (18 November 2021): ‘Overcrowding and long delays in A&E caused over 4000 deaths last year in England, analysis shows’.
‘The mortality figure was calculated from findings from the NHS’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme, which found that one in 67 patients staying in an emergency department for 12 hours came to excess harm, and hospital episode statistics (for 2020-21), which measure numbers of stays of 12 hours from time of arrival.’The relationship between long stays in A&E and excess deaths was investigated by ‘FullFact’ (23 January 2023) – see https://fullfact.org/health/accident-emergency-delays-excess-deaths/
‘The RCEM told us that to come up with its original estimate it looked at the monthly number of patients spending over 12 hours in A&E for all four nations to make the data comparable. For England it used a monthly estimate for England derived from the annual data for 2021/22. It then divided this UK-wide figure by 72 to estimate the number of deaths in a month, and then divided again to come up with weekly totals.’
The relationship between long stays in A&E and excess deaths was investigated by the fact checking service ‘FullFact’ (23 January 2023) – see https://fullfact.org/health/accident-emergency-delays-excess-deaths/
‘The RCEM told us that to come up with its original estimate it looked at the monthly number of patients spending over 12 hours in A&E for all four nations to make the data comparable. For England it used a monthly estimate for England derived from the annual data for 2021/22. It then divided this UK-wide figure by 72 to estimate the number of deaths in a month, and then divided again to come up with weekly totals.’
It’s hard to see this a anything other than a blatant attempt by the Express to deceive – and arguably demonstrate outright disrespect towards – its readers in Scotland. The same front page was reproduced on the Scotland page of the BBC News website – deception amplified as a public service?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Life expectancy in the South going down. Austerity. 200 knife deaths a year in London.
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WHY THE PRESS WATCHDOG NOT ACTING TO CURB THESE LIES
AND MISQUOTING OF SO CALLED “STORIES”
MAYBE HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON WOULD BE H@CK THAN WHAT WE HAVE AT PRESENT FROM THE CORRUPT BIASED press
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PLEASE ST
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PLEASE DO NOT PREFIX THIS BILOUS RAG WITH ANYTHING SCOTTISH
IT GIVES THEM RECOGNITION THEY MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT DESERVE
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You would think that a main story in ALL “Scottish” media including the bbc and stv would have been this from NHSGGC……….
Major first for NHSGGC as pioneering system lets surgeon ‘see inside’ patient during spinal surgery
The Institute for Neurological Sciences in Glasgow has performed the first operation in the UK – and is only the third centre worldwide – that uses Mixed Reality (MR) technology to allow the surgeon to “see inside” a patient’s body during surgery.
The Institute is operated by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde providing highly specialised care for patients throughout Scotland – and the fact the MR procedure took place there cements its place as an international centre of excellence and innovation.
The major operation involved surgery on 75-year-old Carol Toal to correct a misalignment of her spine, treat a spinal cyst and decompress spinal nerves.
The issue had left Mrs Toal, from Irvine, with chronic pain in her back and leg and meant the formerly active woman struggled to walk more than 25 yards without having to stop.
The procedure earlier this month involved a highly advanced system called Spine Mixed Reality Navigation, as part of a trial in conjunction with manufacturer Brainlab.
The system takes current technology which fuses intraoperative X-rays with external images of a patient and, instead of a surgeon needing to look at a screen the images are relayed through MR goggles, giving an extremely accurate view of the patient’s body and their underlying spinal anatomy.
Mohamed Abdelsadg, Consultant Neurosurgeon and Complex Spine Surgeon, carried out the surgery. He said: “The result is we are effectively able to see inside a patient’s body while we are performing the operation.
“This means the surgery is much more accurate, is much less invasive, and minimises surgical damage to other tissue’’.
For Mr Abdelsadg and his team, the operation went very smoothly – largely down to the amount of preparation the team were able to do. He said: “We already do a lot of minimally invasive work using an earlier Brainlab system, so we were familiar with the set-up and this felt more like a software upgrade rather than a completely new system.
“Also, the spinal neurosurgeons arranged for three days’ training in the Institute’s Teasdale simulation suite, which allowed us to familiarise ourselves with the kit. This meant the technical part of the operation went well.”
Less than a week after the operation, Mr Abdelsadg said Mrs Toal’s leg pain was resolved and, while she was experiencing some back pain due to the surgery, it is expected that will reduce with time.
Mrs Toal herself was happy with how the surgery went, and she felt she was recovering well. She said: “My leg is much better and though I still have some pain in my back I’m feeling really hopeful.
“Before the pain got too bad, I used to be really active, going swimming, taking lots of holidays with my husband Robert and spending time with our six grandchildren, so I’m really looking forward to being able to do more in future.
“I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who’s been involved in my care. I can’t praise them highly enough – in fact the surgeon and his team really have been lifesavers for me.”
While Mrs Toal was the first patient to undergo surgery using the Spine Mixed Reality system, the team hope her positive progress means it won’t be the last.
“Our early experience was certainly positive,” said Mr Abdelsadg, “and we all feel this system has real potential to build on the advanced neurosurgical work we do at the Institute.”
Susan Groom, Director of Regional Services at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “The Institute for Neurological Sciences, and services across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, are always looking to embrace innovations that are shown to improve outcomes for our patients.
“I would like to thank the team at the Institute for their work during the trial, and express my appreciation to Brainlab for coming to us with this new equipment.
“Being the first centre in the UK, and only the third in the world, to use this mixed reality technology is a further demonstration of the high regard internationally in which the Institute is held.”
JB
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Westminster £50Billion for Defence (attack). £30Billion tax evasion. £Billions decommissioning nuclear. £Billions lost in Brexit. Brillion lost HS2, Hickley Point etc. Not enough for the NHS, Education and welfare. Money cut from pensioners and children.
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