By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Public Health Scotland yesterday:
During January 2025, there were 23,931 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is similar to the number planned a year previously in January 2024 (23,937). Overall, the number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision. Of all planned operations during January 2025 in NHS Scotland, 786 (3.3%) were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 788 (3.3%) were cancelled by the patient, 600 (2.5%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 195 (0.8%) were cancelled for other reasons.
Assessment of the performance of NHS Scotland in the completion of operations can only be judged by the number/percentage cancelled because of a lack of staff or facilities on the day, due perhaps, to an unusual flood of demand or of staff sickness. Consequently we can say that 97.5% of all planned operations in January 2025 could be met. For a huge complex organisation carrying out hundreds of thousands of procedures every year, this is awesome.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
NHS extra £22Billion funding from April. Scottish Gov funding SNHS £18Billion + social care. That will be increased. Tories cut funding for 14 years.
Summer is coming less people get ill. Sunshine and healthy diet. Less smoking. More exercise. Holidays. Obesity is increasing. People need counselling to eat less. Pays for itself. Less spent on the NHS. Earlier death. The UK Gov could do more to legislate for more healthy food. The food industry additives of bad fat. Other places do. Better health outcomes.
MUP less alcohol consumption. £250million funding total abstinence proper rehab. Cut earlier death. More young people coming forward for help. NA and AA help people get well. Instead of methadone more deadly than heroin. People get prescribed methadone then take other substances. Die.
LikeLike
Seems that the BBC,STV,The Herald and the rest of ‘em have decided this is not newsworthy as it is a positive for our Scottish NHS and our SNP Scottish Government.
Health Secretary visit to NHSGGC Frailty Service
Today (5th March 2025) Health Secretary Neil Gray visited the Glasgow Royal Infirmary Frailty Service.
Frailty Units are specialist beds that focus on intense assessment of older people with frailty – the services offer access to specialist skills and care plans, accelerate early discharge and look to reduce delays and length of stay.
Mr Gray met staff working in the hospital’s dedicated frailty service which has reported significant progress in the last 18 months – with the average length of stay for vulnerable patients reducing by 3 days, without any increase in readmission. The service has also reported enhanced co-ordination and collaboration among healthcare teams leading to improved patient outcomes.
As part of his visit, Mr Gray also outlined the Scottish Government’s plans to build on this progress by installing a frailty service in every site with a core A&E by the summer. The national roll-out of specialist frailty services at all 30 A&E departments will build on recent progress to clear long waits and help reduce hospital stay length for the most vulnerable people.
Mr Gray said:
“In recent weeks we have seen good progress in reducing waits and there are encouraging signs that our plan is working. However, we know there is more to do and we want to drive further improvement. That is why we are investing £200 million to help clear waiting list backlogs, improve capacity and reduce delayed discharge.
“I was pleased to meet the team working in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary frailty service and see first-hand the positive impact their crucial work is having – with the service allowing speedier assessment of vulnerable people presenting at A&E and reducing length of stay for patients significantly.
“We want to replicate this success across Scotland and shift the balance of care from acute, to community. Through a portion of our £200 million investment, we will deliver direct access to specialist frailty teams in every A&E by this summer. This will enable people who experience frailty to be referred directly by GPs and the Scottish Ambulance Service to specialist frailty services as an alternative to attending A&E or admission.”
Laura Duffy, Consultant Geriatrician at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said:
“Working with our colleagues in the Emergency Department and Acute Assessment Unit, we have created a process which identifies people living with frailty. This enables us to direct and prioritise these people to receive care from a specialist team, in specialist areas and initiate early Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA).
“A key part of developing this service has been ensuring that we identify the priorities and concerns of our patients and their carers promptly and work in partnership with them to develop a plan for their care.
“We have also worked at further developing and enhancing our links and interface working with our colleagues in the community and in social care. We have developed daily CGA Huddles which can be attended by a variety of acute, community and social care teams. These allow the early exchange of key information and collateral information gathering about patients, which helps provide more effective, timely and patient centred care.
“The results so far have been promising with 74% of patients admitted through the Acute Medical Receiving Unit being screened for frailty. We have also noted a reduction in length of stay of three days for people with frailty, without an increase in readmissions.”
JB
LikeLiked by 1 person