Another shameful attempt by Jackie Baillie to make you think that folk are dying because of ambulance delays in a country where they are far far faster than in Labour Wales

BBC Wales
The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser 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

In the Herald (Where else) today, not on BBC Scotland‘s website but give them time, this:

See that wee ‘or’ in the last line, there? That’s the first sign that ‘Scottish’ Labour’s health spokesperson is playing games with the numbers.

Where a paramedic fails to resuscitate someone, that cannot be attributed to delays. These are tragic cases where two skilled emergency paramedics could do nothing more. To characterise these as, in some way failure, is to shamefully question the skills and efforts of these paramedics. Think if the experience these people had as they rushed to save a life and then could not, while Baillie sat scheming to undermine the SNP and, she hopes, keep her seat and her fat salary, in 2026.

As for the other, unspecified for effect no doubt, number who died in the ambulance on the way, here are facts Baillie does not want you to know.

From our good friend stewartb in March 2023 a long read:

Excess deaths due to long A&E waits almost three times more common in England than in Scotland

From me in December 2024:

In Scotland no actual ambulance crisis as in Wales but still even the possibility of delays has the BBC inviting Scottish Cons and Labour round to finish 2024 off with one more SNP-bad session

And based on BBC data before they pulled them:

As the Guardian highlights long ambulance wait deaths, how Scotland’s ambulances were FOUR times faster in early 2024 before BBC pulled the site where I got the facts

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

12 thoughts on “Another shameful attempt by Jackie Baillie to make you think that folk are dying because of ambulance delays in a country where they are far far faster than in Labour Wales”

  1. 50,000+ people die in Scotland a year. Most after a long and happy life. Life expectancy on average 79 years. Women worldwide live on average 5 years longer than men. Life expectancy on average going down in the rest of the UK. Austerity and UK policies killing people off. The winter fuel payment cut. Cuts of benefits for people.

    Highest average life expectancy. Japan 85. Spain 84. Good food and healthy diet. Exercise. US 76 average life expectancy. Most counties more equal and cohesive than the UK or US. US/UK illegal wars killed and maim millions of people worldwide.

    Instead of investing in healthcare to keep people alive worldwide.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. If you read right to the end of the article on the Front page of the Herald today you will find a very strong statement from the Scottish Ambulance Service stating that Sarwar and Baillie have misused the statistics. There were warnings in the response to their FOI request which the pair have ignored. Instead the pair have sensationalised the data to score political points.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  3. Damn Jackie better not need the services of the Scottish Ambulance Service in the near future OR she may be seen as a victim of the very ”failure” that she seeks ( regularly) to make political capital from . Physically she does appear to be in a cohort of people who are more likely to require the SAS to respond quickly to health issues .

    Like

    Reply

  5. It would appear the leadership of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) in England has less interest in taking steps to have the BBC report its critical press releases about the Westminster government and NHS England. At least less than their colleagues in Scotland do regarding critical statements about the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland. Or have I got this the wrong way round?

    Is it that BBC Scotland is more keen to amplify the RCEM’s critical statements regarding the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland than the BBC elsewhere is to report the RCEM’s critical statements regarding the Westminster government and NHS England?

    What follows is an extract from the latest RCEM press release. It takes little imagination to spot the potential for ‘impactful’ headlines to embellish a BBC Scotland piece. Also, one can readily envisage the inclusion in a BBC article of RCEM leader’s quotes plus Gulhane and Baillie’s tuppenceworth if the RCEM was commenting on Scotland here.

    Source: RCEM (January 30 2025): ‘New guidance fails to address how ‘national shame’ of corridor care and excessive A&E waits will be tackled – RCEM responds to the government’s ‘mandate for the NHS’ and NHSE planning guidance’

    It states: ‘New missives from the Department of Health and NHS England provide little ‘guidance’ as to how the most dangerous and shameful issues facing Emergency Departments – corridor care and excessive pre-admission waits – are going to be tackled.‘ (my emphasis)

    ‘Responding, RCEM President, Dr Adrian Boyle, said: “Today was a chance for the DHSC and NHSE to really give some guidance about how the national shame of corridor care and long A&E stays before admission will be tackled.”

    Adding: “But apart from stating the ambition that ‘a higher proportion of patients admitted, discharged and transferred from ED within 12 hours’, there is little meaningful indication of how this is to be achieved.‘

    “Fundamentally corridor care and overcrowding are caused by lack of capacity in, and flow through, our hospitals and we are disappointed to see no meaningful commitments to tackle them.

    “All the admission avoidance in the world won’t help an elderly patient waiting on a trolley in a corridor for hours.’

    The RCEM’s statement ends with this: ‘Elsewhere is has been reported that 2,000 NHS jobs could be at risk in the drive for efficiency, as well as the implementation of a recruitment freeze.’

    A search of the BBC News website found no coverage of this criticism.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. O/T but still on the British Labour Party government’s actions – or inactions – towards the NHS in England.

    Rooting around the BBC News website for coverage of the RCEM’s latest, critical press release about the Westminster government – I failed to find it – I came across this headline: ‘Delayed hospital upgrade could cost an extra £800m’.

    The article is dated January 30, 2025: tucked away on the ‘West Yorkshire news’ section. It reports: ‘Upgrades to a city-centre hospital could cost £800m more than originally planned, following government delays to the project. (my emphasis)

    ‘Health bosses in Leeds have been told proposed building work at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) will not begin until at least 2032.
    It means the new adult hospital, maternity centre and children’s hospital are unlikely to be delivered until 2040, more than 20 years after plans for the overhaul were first announced.

    ‘A spokesperson for The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said “This government has confirmed a funding plan and realistic timetable to put us on track to deliver the rebuild of LGI’ !!

    From September 12, 2019, the Scotland section of the BBC News website had this headline: ‘Call for ‘heads to roll’ over Edinburgh children’s hospital delay’.

    ‘The hospital was supposed to open in 2017 – but will now not be ready until next autumn at the earliest.’

    ‘At first minister’s questions on Thursday, Scottish Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw criticised the “absolute shambles” surrounding the new hospital. And he accused Health Secretary Jeane Freeman of doing “too little, too late” to address the problems with the project.

    ‘Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard asked Ms Sturgeon whether she understood “just how angry people are about this?” He said: “We’ve got a children’s hospital in Edinburgh that can’t open its doors, ….” To. make the obvious observation: unlike Leeds, Edinburgh does have its new hospital, has had it for years now!

    The leaders of the British Labour Party in Scotland at the time raged: “We need to get to the bottom of this. We need full public transparency to restore public trust, so what will it take for the first minister to finally listen and deliver a full public inquiry into this abject failure of governance and government?“

    Oppositional politics and its coverage by the BBC seems so mild mannered in England! Are opposition politicians in Westminster less prone to going over the top in their language? Or does the BBC reporting England choose not to aggregate and amplify the rhetorical excesses for the ‘benefit’ of the public so much as the BBC does when reporting Scotland?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  7. Pingback: Another Scottish Labour leader believes in accuracy in the media unless you’re talking about Scotland – Talking-up Scotland

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.