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
BBC Scotland today has:
More than £34m has been spent developing plans for five delayed NHS treatment centres which are meant to deal with a backlog of operations.
then largely demolishing any value their report might have:
The Scottish government said an update on the centres would be provided after the UK government’s Spending review this spring.
How big is this backlog?
In the last few weeks:
Over a longer period:
Significant increase in those seen within 18 weeks to remain 14% better than NHS England
From Public Health Scotland, today, we see that 68.1% of patients waiting for treatment, in the quarter ending 30 June 2024, were seen within 18 weeks, up from 65.1% in the previous quarter.1
From the BBC in May 2024 (most recent data), we see reported a figure of 57% for NHS England.2
NHS Scotland is thus performing 14.2% on the 18 week waiting list target.
NHS Wales uses the easier 26 week target but still returns a figure of 57% seen within that time.3
Why does this target matter and matter more perhaps than the one-year target often much politicised to attack NHS Scotland?
It’s kind of obvious. If you have a life-threatening condition you really need to be seen quickly and the 18 week target is designed to ensure that happens. If you have a chronic non-life threatening condition, like arthritis, tough though that may be, a resource-strapped health service cannot always be expected to treat that in the shorter term.
Sources:
- https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/nhs-waiting-times-18-weeks-referral-to-treatment/nhs-waiting-times-18-weeks-referral-to-treatment-quarter-ending-30-june-2024
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-69070207
- https://www.gov.wales/nhs-activity-and-performance-summary-december-2023-and-january-2024-html
Nearly 10% more are on the overall NHS waiting list in England than in Scotland
On the 28th May 2024, according to BBC Scotland:
NHS waiting lists in Scotland have reached a record high, the latest figures show. Public Health Scotland recorded more than 690,000 waits for appointments or treatment for non-urgent care as of 31 March.
According to the Health Service Journal, yesterday:
In April the English referral-to-treatment waiting list grew slightly by 34,000 to 7.57 million patient pathways. These are the last figures to be published before the general election, meaning the pre-election waiting list is 358,000 larger than the figures available when prime minister Rishi Sunak said “NHS waiting lists will fall”.
All things being equal, with 690 000 waiting in Scotland, you’d expect 6 900 000 waiting in England but it was actually 7 570 000, or 8.85% higher.
8.85% of the 7 570 000 is 66 945 so nearly 67 000 people in England would not be on the NHS waiting list if the SNP had been in government there for 17 years.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqlly95k5l0o
Finally, how quickly are they getting on with ops?
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_Brow
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 