A gift for Scotland only – Christmas Eve, A&E death lies, BBC Scotland and Sandesh Gulhane

By Professor John Robertson OBA

NOTE: I'm so sickeningly angry, I've put this rebuttal together very quickly so please forgive any errors.

BBC Reporting Scotland and Good Mourning Scotland only, not on the BBC Scotland website or any oter BBC site, a disgusting piece of heartless propaganda repeating the trash media reports, today:

The above claims are based on Conservative and Labour ‘modelling‘, saved up for the ‘Scottish’ media to release today, Christmas Eve, and underpinned by Royal College of Emergency Medicine (UK) analysis.

BBC UK, England and Wales do not have this story.

They tried this foul-smelling Xmas game, three years ago, November 3rd 2021, and the explanation still applies:

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has estimated that more than 230 people have died in Scotland this year because of long delays in emergency departments. No such data is collected so, based on their assertion that data show that for every 67 patients waiting 8-12 hours ‘one of them will come to harm’, they then just use that to divide the total waiting for that time in 2021 to come up with their 230.

This is shoogly peg statistics as any student would know.

Leaving aside the uncertainty of how ‘coming to harm’ becomes ‘die’ in the headline, doesn’t the triage system ensure that those at risk of dying have been prioritised and it is those not at risk who wait longer? Is the head of the RCEM Scotland suggesting that this does not happen for some reason and that his colleagues are making mistakes?

Finally, isn’t it remarkable, revealing and, of course nauseating, that only Scots are receiving this gift from their local media.

BBC UK, England and Wales do not have this story and yet:

Factcheck – Full emergency waiting times are significantly shorter in Scotland unless you fake the figures like the Times

A&E waiting times

The Times (November 30) claimed that in September 2024, 65.9% were seen within 4 hours in Scotland and 72.4% were seen in that time in NHS England.

They’re confused or dishonest.

Looking at the published data, from Public Health Scotland, we see that in September 2024, 69.4% were seen within 4 hours across ‘All’ A&E units, including those in small ‘cottage’ hospitals, and that 65.9% were seen in the full, consultant-led emergency departments, ‘ED’.1

From NHS England, for ‘All’ units, including those in small ‘cottage’ hospitals, the figure was 74.2% but, crucially for the full, Type 1, consultant-led units, the figure was only 59.8%, around 10% worse than in Scotland.2

That 10% matters. It relates to around 40 000 people in England waiting longer and 4 000 in Scotland seen quicker.

The Times authors, stupidly or deliberately have compared the English ‘All’ data with the Scottish full, ED, data to misrepresent the truth.

Sources:

  1. https://publichealthscotland.scot/healthcare-system/urgent-and-unscheduled-care/accident-and-emergency/interactive-charts/how-long-people-spend-in-ae/
  2. https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2024-25/

The TuS Christmas Message?

Based on what they did in Wales, a Labour Government in Scotland would add half a million to Scotland’s NHS waiting lists! Pay attention. Do not vote for these numpties without checking this out

Scottish Labour have always had trouble with numbers and Scottish Labour Leader, Anas Sarwar is no exception as he walks into an embarrassing gaff in the Daily Record today, with this:

Almost 1 in 6 Scots are on an NHS waiting list. The combined waiting lists total 824,725 people.1

The Scottish Con’s, Sandy Gullane, similarly no that bright, says:

Around one in seven Scots is on a waiting list for NHS treatment.2

Make up your mind lads. That’s a big difference, hundreds of thousands.

Never mind the sums then, what’s the total?

The Record above says 824 725 on the NHS Scotland list.

Scottish Labour must know a few of the chaps down in Labour Wales. Before we agree how bad 1 in 6 is, let’s compare how they’re doing after decades in control?

BBC Wales today says they have 801 300 on their waiting lists.3

Steady now, Labour lads. To be fair, we will need to do a wee sum because there are more folk in Scotland in the first place. Scotland has 1.7 times the population of Wales, so we’ll need to multiply their 801 300 by 1.7 to get a fair estimate of how many would be on a waiting list in Scotland if it had a Labour Government.

It’s a shocker – 1 362 000, far bigger than 824 725 so with a Labour Government Scotland would have around 500 000 [HALF A MILLION] more on their NHS waiting lists.

Sources:

  1. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/scotland-s-nhs-is-on-life-support-under-the-snp-and-scots-are-being-failed/ar-AA1tR9C5?ocid=iehpLMEMpx&apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1
  2. https://www.msn.com/en-ph/health/other/80-rise-in-scots-patients-going-private-as-nhs-waiting-times-soar/ar-BB1mwJwH?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1
  3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c704y4lk3z9o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5BBBC+England%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_link_origin=BBCWalesNews&at_medium=social&at_format=link&at_link_type=web_link&at_campaign_type=owned&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_link_id=2404DEC2-A801-11EF-A43E-9AFB7F9B2CF4

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

8 thoughts on “A gift for Scotland only – Christmas Eve, A&E death lies, BBC Scotland and Sandesh Gulhane”

  2. Re

    “The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has estimated that more than 230 people have died in Scotland this year because of long delays in emergency departments.”

    The danger of mixing up causality and correlation 👇

    Liked by 6 people

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  4. ‘NOTE: I’m so sickeningly angry,..’ I share your emotion over this co-ordinated, hypocritical gaslighting of Scotland. Despicable on any day of the year, but on Christmas Eve ….!

    I saw the coverage first via the newspaper front-page feature on the Scotland page of the BBC News website. I read what I could by magnifying the pictures. Strong focus on long A&E waits and their alleged links to ‘excess deaths’.

    Alerted by the estimable MSM Monitor on X, I listened to a clip of a BBC Radio Scotland piece on the same topic. An interviewee – a journalist? – noted that NHS Scotland had better A&E waiting times performance than its NHS peers elsewhere in the UK. The Radio Scotland interviewer interjects ‘scepticism’: the interviewee responds by (in terms) agreeing that it’s hard to draw comparisons and in any event the differences in performance are marginal.

    As far as I can tell, no context given anywhere, no perspective given, no questioning of the methodology which claims long waits lead to death.

    No acknowledgement that the across this ‘better together’ UK, the NHS is in serious difficulty – has been for some time and for multiple reasons exacerbated by a global pandemic.

    Indeed, the Labour government in Westminster refers to the NHS as ‘broken’ after over a decade of Tory mismanagement – and yet Tory Gulhane is able to gaslight Scotland with BBC Scotland and mainstream media assistance!

    The Labour government in Westminster refers to the NHS as ‘broken’ after over a decade of Tory mismanagement – and yet despite NHS Wales under a Labour government in Cardiff being a prime example of the poor state of the NHS (especially over A&E waits), Labour’s Baillie is able to gaslight Scotland with BBC Scotland and mainstream media assistance.

    And to those involved in the Radio Scotland interview:

    (i) waiting times in A&E/Emergency Departments across the UK are NOT all that difficult to compare (see Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s website and the Office of National Statistics work on statistical comparability across the UK’s NHS) ; and (

    ii) on the matter of 12 hour waits in Emergency Departments the differences are NOT minor, NHS Scotland performs substantially better than its peers and has done for some time (see Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s analysis).

    How many times must TuS address this issue before the health and political journalists in BBC Scotland, the Daily Record, The Herald, The Scotsman et al practice their trade with reasonable standards of ethics and inform rather than gaslight the Scottish public? I won’t hold my breath!

    Recall this from TuS in November this year: ‘As the Daily Record amplifies the British Labour Party Chancellor’s lie about NHS Scotland, how often will it leave readers misinformed in order to support the Party?’ Should it have read ‘support the Union’? All the FACTS – fully referenced from authoritative sources are included: NHS Scotland’s emergency departments are under huge pressure; their waiting times are far from satisfactory; AND their performance is the best of the NHS in the four nations by a long way!

    https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/11/08/rachel-reeves-barefaced-lie-about-nhs-scotland-and-the-daily-records-campaign-to-make-anas-sarwar-your-first-minister/

    Liked by 5 people

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  5. BBC Breakfast in the “News where you are” edition at 6.30am this morning had this, Deaths and A & E waiting times, as their second story , after a lead story on a fatal airplane crash, and the BBC in this report decided to air the Tory MSP/part time doctor’s opinion upon this.

    Half an hour later, at 7am, this A & E story moved to being their lead story (top story) and the fatal airplane crash moved to being their second story and this time it was Jackie Baillie Labour MSP whose opinion they , the BBC, sought out.

    Both the Tory & the Labour opinions were #SNPBAD.

    The ridiculous aspect of this story was that in both the BBC’s “News where we are” editions at 6.30am & 7am the presenter stated that the Scottish government said that their performance in A & E waiting times had been the “best service within the UK for the last 8 years” so this then made both this story by the BBC and also the criticism from the Tory & the Labour MSP’s very much partisan in nature, pointless and so really pathetic.

    Scotland’s A & E waiting times is the best service within the UK for the last 8 years so how the hell does the BBC in Scotland then manage to communicate that as yet another #SNPBAD BBC report.

    How indeed (because we all know how and why).

    They, the BBC in Scotland, chose to air this A & E deaths report this morning , as their Scottish version of a BBC Scotland’s ‘McScrooge” Ha Ha.

    (Mind you if the BBC managed to catch up with Jackie Baillie did they then also manage to ask her about her party and her leader (ITO) in Scotland’s lack of prompt action on the Cammy Day scandal. I jest of course, I mean come on, as if they would).

    Merry Xmas everyone and many thanks to Prof Robertson for keeping us all well informed on the REAL news where we are (and too the news where they are as well).

    Liked by 5 people

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  6. Thank you Prof. John Robertson for all that you do and put up with, just trying to maintain some truth in the media we are exposed to.

    A very Merry Christmas to you and your family.

    Liked by 3 people

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