The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily, finishing on 28 February, 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, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS
The Record today with another single case of supposed NHS failure then generalised and politicised to mislead readers and viewers.
On January 21, BBC Scotland tried the same thing.
BBC Scotland faking baby death ‘spikes’ that were never there
By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Scottish pregnancy, births and neonatal data dashboard, published on 14th January 2025, you can see Scotland’s falling stillbirth trend with variation between 3 and 5 per 1 000 births around the ‘normal’ level of 4, from one quarter to the next. There is one quarterly figure of 5 per 1 000 in July-September 2021 but it is not repeated and is no more significant then the very low figure in the previous quarter. Scotland’s higher level of midwife and home visitor staffing must be credited as a major factor in this trend.
In the second graph, on deaths in the first four weeks of life, you can see a slightly higher rate in the last three years with one additional death per 1 000 before returning recently to around the ‘normal’ level. Worsening Tory austerity, hitting the poorest, often single, mothers, the hardest must be considered as an explanation. In July – September 2023, the rate increased, by less than 1.5 but, but this is not repeated. There are no statistically significant spikes.
Yet, BBC Scotland, reporting on a single baby death suggest:
From this month, maternity units across Scotland will routinely face unannounced inspections by the NHS safety watchdog, Healthcare Improvement Scotland. It comes in response to a number of spikes in newborn deaths in recent years.
This is not true. There have been no ‘spikes’ and the quarterly variations were not repeated.
For context, Scotland has the lowest stillbirth rate in the UK. See:
Stillbirth rates per 1,000 total births in 2021 for the UK were 3.54 and varied between the devolved nations; 3.52 (England); 3.27 (Scotland); 3.88 (Wales); and 4.09 (Northern Ireland).
These little percentage differences mean thousands of lives.
As for a ‘putrid’ hospital. How about some facts?
In the week ending 24 October 2021 there were 17,749 new cases of Covid reported to the Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland service.
Of these:
- 17,427 (98.2%) were reported as community onset (first positive specimen taken in the community). In the previous week (week ending 17 October 2021) there were 17,462 (98.5%).
- 239 (1.3%) were reported as non-hospital onset (first positive specimen on day 1 or 2 of admission to NHS board). In the previous week (week ending 17 October 2021) there were 175 (1.0%).
- 22 (0.1%) were reported as indeterminate hospital onset (first positive specimen on days 3 to 7 of admission to NHS board). In the previous week (week ending 17 October 2021) there were 25 (0.1%).
- 17 (0.1%) were reported as probable hospital onset (first positive specimen on days 8 to 14 of admission to NHS board). In the previous week (week ending 17 October 2021) there were 21 (0.1%).
- 44 (0.2%) were reported as definite hospital onset (first positive specimen date was 15 or more days after admission to NHS board). In the previous week (week ending 17 October 2021) there were 45 (0.3%).
- https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/hospital-onset-covid-19-cases-in-scotland/hospital-onset-covid-19-cases-in-scotland-week-ending-1-march-2020-to-week-ending-24-october-2021/
How good is that?
As you can see, only 44 out of 17 749 infections were picked up in Scotland’s 229 hospitals containing 20 533 beds. How good is that? 0.2% with a highly virulent airborne disease in large complex buildings and fast-changing residents and staff, seems pretty impressive to me.
Comparatively?
Well, NHS England does not publish easily accessible data.
However, in January 2021, we found:
Thousands of ‘probable’ cases of Covid caught in hospitals in NHS England have been excluded from official figures. Health officials calculating the rate of cases in hospital settings omitted instances where patients contracted coronavirus between seven and 14 days after admission – despite the fact the virus has an incubation period of up to six days in 95 per cent of cases. This practice goes directly against official advice to staff to categorised these cases as ‘hospital onset’ infections, and allowed NHS England to claim that its ‘nosocomial rates – referring to Covid patients infected in hospital – are down to as little as 7.7 per cent.
In NHS Scotland the most recent figures, for week-ending 27th December put the definite hospital onset figure at 1.9% and the probable rate at 0.4%.
So, the rate in England of hospital-acquired Covid infection is between 3 and 4 times higher even with these fiddled figures.
Back in October, the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at Oxford put the rate at between 18% and 23%.
I contacted the researchers recently and asked for a more recent update. They said they would be updating but have not published anything newer.
BBC Scotland have not covered the story.
And we knew they were before the pandemic:
Why might Scotland’s hospitals be cleaner? One reason:
Scotland axes outsourced hospital cleaning | Nursing Times
https://www.nursingtimes.net › archive › scotland-axes-ou…
20 Oct 2008 — Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced the move to end outsourcing of catering, cleaning and porter services across all NHS …
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' 
What does the Daily Record hope to achieve by printing such a baleful story and headline?
The grief, anger, disbelief, etc of parents who have lost a child is understandable. Of course, people want to offer comfort and sympathy to try to ease the pain. But, how does the Daily Record’s hate-filled bile serve the health service in Scotland?
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So , given the ”putrid” headline from the Daily Record , what would they suggest happens to the said hospital ?
That it be closed ? That any staff found to be responsible ( if any ) for this death be sacked ? That the Health Secretary be sacked ? ( the current one or the one that was in situ at the time of the death or the one in Office at the time of this ”putrid” hospital opening ? ) or that we have an inquiry to alleviated any concerns that the public ( and The Media ) have over the safety of this hospital ?
Oh wait ! There is an inquiry ongoing ! Shouldn’t we wait for the results of that ?
But , if cleared of any wrongdoing that won’t give the headline writers at the Daily Record any joy . So , rather than wait for disappointing ( for us ) results from an independent inquiry , let’s put the boot in without any facts or evidence to support our stance . That’s the way we roll in the Media !
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I feel sorry for any loss of a child but when you read this in a paper and BBC Scotland giving it more coverage it just shows how sick they are we have all these baby’s who have died in England but no such coverage tells us all we need to know.
O/T but we should keep our eyes on this.
https://news.sky.com/story/reynolds-set-for-fresh-talks-on-british-steel-rescue-deal-13311458
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I wonder how many takes it took for the Wrecker’s photographer to get the exact mixture of depression and care front-page sensationalism – Any parent would be distraught over a still birth, but put in context, it is nowhere near the levels when most of us were born, and before “putrid” reporting became the norm from the Record.
The BBC Scotland quote from Claire Macallister’s piece “It comes in response to a number of spikes in newborn deaths in recent years” is total rubbish – You covered the ‘spikes’ aspect, so let’s address the ‘in response to’ in https://archive.ph/J1eEI
HIS was formed in 2011, and HEI (formed 2 years earlier) was subsumed into it, both set up under Salmond governments in Scotland – HIS had announced in August 2024 the plan for unannounced inspections beginning January 2025, even BBC Scotland covered it – Maybe nobody told Claire….
As to Lazy Winters’ “Analysis by”, the first line says it all, “There are things to weigh up when covering a story like this” – Indeed Lisa, I weighed it up as better sticking to facts, not playing “Call Kay” with an E…
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Come on everyone you should know how it works by now. The motto emblazoned on every UK media outlet editor’s office noticeboard is ‘Why wait for the outome of a public inquiry and for the facts to emerge when you can just as easily damage the SNP/ Scottish Government by innuendo and false accusations from any source let alone a credible one. Afterall this has never been about publishing news in the public interest especially given the forthcoming Holyrood election. Behave yourselves.
Robbo
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