The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser, closing today at 3pm, primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson
By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Public Health Scotland, today, 100% of patients referred for IVF treatment were seen within 52 weeks. Of these, 67.4% were seen within 26 weeks, 26.7% within 39 weeks.1
And from Fertility Scotland:
Scotland is proud to be the only UK nation to provide up to three full IVF/ICSI cycles on the NHS for eligible couples with some of the highest pregnancy rates and lowest multiple births across all UK nations.2
In England:
IVF: ‘People are being priced out of becoming parents’3
How free IVF saves lives and reduces NHS bills – from 2022 research published in European Psychiatry:
The psychosocial impact of infertility has been well researched and documented. However very little research has been conducted to assess the causative relationship between infertility and serious psychiatric illness such as suicide. According to the results obtained by assessment of MINI scale , the prevalence of major depressive disorder (50 % ) followed by Dysthymia (persistent depression) (25%) was documented among infertile group while suicidality at 15% were significantly higher than other disorder. No such cases of suicidality or Dysthymia was found among patients of control group. (fertile group).4
Media coverage today?
BBC UK and BBC Scotland have nothing but BBC Health have:
In Scotland, 78% of IVF cycles are NHS funded, compared with 53% in Wales and 45% in England.5
Sources:
- https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland-quarter-ending-30-september-2024/
- https://fertility.scot/about-nhsscotland-fertility-services/#:~:text=Learn%20more%20about%20Fertility%20Services%20in%20NHS%20Scotland,births%20across%20all%20UK%20nations.
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-67946227
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566938/
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This must be the ‘something for nothing’ society that ‘Scottish’ Labour’s Johan Lamont sneered at.
Alasdair Macdonald
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