Professor John Robertson OBA
Many thanks to Brenda Robb for both alerting me to this and for research assistance.
In the Guardian today, the above, and:
The NHS has repeatedly failed in its diagnosis and care of stroke patients, England’s health ombudsman has said. According to the World Stroke Association, more than 12 million people worldwide will have their first stroke this year and 6.5 million will die as a result. Strokes are one of the UK’s biggest killers, causing about 34,000 deaths a year, and the single biggest cause of severe disability.
The NHS Fast campaign aims to raise awareness of the most common symptoms of stroke – facial drooping, arm weakness and slurred speech – and the need for prompt treatment, including transfer to a specialist stroke unit within four hours. Without it, a stroke can result in death or long-term disabilities such as paralysis, memory loss and communication problems.
Figures from the Sentinel stroke national audit programme (SSNAP), which assesses the quality of stroke care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, show that just 46.6% of patients are directly admitted to a specialist stroke unit within four hours of symptoms
These appear to be data up to March 2025 and the most recent NHS Scotland data are in the 30 July 2024 report for 2023, so that does limit the comparison but the differences are so large as to warrant consideration here.
From Scottish stroke improvement programme Annual report 2024 published on 30 July 2024:
10,803 Scottish residents had a final diagnosis of stroke in 2023.
Performance against the swallow screen standard (100% within 4 hours) remains challenging. There are fluctuations in performance across the country, but no NHS board does well. The Scottish average (67.7%) is almost identical to that reported in 2022, and down from 73% in 2021.
‘No NHS board does well?’ Yes, but 67.7% looks a lot better than 46.6% and that 20% difference refers to around 2 000 who were treated on time in Scotland but who would not have been in England.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Well spotted by Brenda Robb and great article.
O/T apologies
Starmer’s (cruel) welfare cuts.
On 24 June it was reported by the media, including the BBC, that…………
“More than 120 Labour MPs have signed an amendment that would give them an opportunity to vote on a proposal to reject the welfare reform bill in its entirety.
The amendment said the reforms are expected to push people into relative poverty and expressed concerns about a lack of consultation and an inadequate impact assessment.
The ‘Scottish’ MP signatories for the above amendment were Patricia Ferguson, Brian Leishman, Elaine Stewart, Tracy Gilbert, Scott Arthur , Euan Stainbank, Lillian Jones, Richard Baker, Kirsten Sullivan and Maureen Burke”.
So out of 37 elected Labour MP’s in Scotland last year only 10 (supposedly) rebel against the party.
Sorry supposedly rebel ?
Yes “supposedly rebel” , in fact very much so , as now it is reported today that Labour MP Rachel Maskell was asking Labour MP’s, including all of those above 120 Labour MP’s, to sign a new amendment designed to defeat the government’s (cruel) welfare bill passing in the HOC and so far only two Labour MP’s from the ‘Scottish’ contingent have signed it , Leishman and Burke. So what about the other 8 ?
What indeed .
This new Maskell amendment information above , where only two Labour MP’s from Scotland were willing to sign it (not the other 8) , was not sourced as new information/news from the BBC website on their ‘Scottish’ pages , as that , it seems, is news that they , the BBC, prefer to currently ignore, omit and hopefully after the Welfare Bill vote , will be forgotten as news and so then will be lost in BBC Scotland translation aka BBC Scotland spin and propaganda.
You know it seems to me that Brian Leishman is in constant contention with the party that he was elected as an MP for and so one wonders with so much that he rebels against with his own party then why the H is he still an MP for them ?
If he, Leishman, is seemingly in constant dispute with them and their decisions as a UK government then why should his own constituents still have enough confidence to keep voting Labour in any future elections ?
That surely is a fair question and conclusion to make , No ?
The BBC Scottish politics page on the BBC website currently has nowt in relation to this story of who, from the so called 10 ‘Scottish’ rebels, are still rebelling on this now.
As in nowt from a supposed ‘Scottish’ perspective , but formerly they, the BBC, touted 7 days ago on the their Scottish Politics page that a “Quarter of Scottish Labour MPs join welfare rebellion” but now the BBC Scottish pages of their website seem less keen to report how many “Scottish Labour MP’s” from that original “quarter” are :
a) still willing to ‘rebel’
Or indeed
b) have signed the new Maskell amendment.
However the actual Welfare bill is today the main story in their BBC Home page, UK page and UK Politics page but no room for it on Scottish pages as it may be assumed to be #LabourBad here in Scotland , more so now that some of the ‘Scottish rebel force’ are seemingly looking as if they are finally contained as in perhaps greatly diminished.
So some of those (former?) ‘Scottish’ rebels may now join their other ‘Scottish’ Labour NON REBEL colleagues in them also now putting the party first before some of the people they are supposed to try and represent and support.
(Currently all the BBC Scotland Politics page have regarding the Welfare bill is a article dated 27 June headlined as “What do UK welfare reforms mean for Scotland? And it is the 3rd article on that page).
Liz S
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“(Currently all the BBC Scotland Politics page have regarding the Welfare bill is a article dated 27 June headlined as “What do UK welfare reforms mean for Scotland? And it is the 3rd article on that page)”.
It’s a dreadful article peppered with digs at the SNP like
Meanwhile, the Scottish government prides itself on taking a more generous approach.
ministers again proud to talk about a more “progressive” system
But they have now decided to copy the UK government’s model of automatically clawing back payments from better-off households, and targeting funds at those most in need.
That allows them to trumpet that it is a more generous offering than that available down south, even if the difference is only £3.
Am I being paranoid here and blind to digs towards other parties??
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@brendarobb
“prides itself “
“copy the UK government’s model“
“trumpet“
“even if the difference is only“
Words matter and the BBC knows it.
So there is no “Paranoia” about it as the digs are real in that Scotland is not allowed to be distinct and better as it must either follow what the English government does or be chastised and undermined by the BBC here in Scotland (and also other media too).
So one wonders what now will the BBC in Scotland make of the embarrassing climb down by Starmer and his government on the Welfare Bill , where 49 Labour MP’s still opposed it.
So how many Labour MP’s elected in Scotland opposed the new voted upon version of the welfare Bill that did ultimately pass in the HOC yesterday from the original 10 in Scotland that were cited to oppose it in it’s original form.
Well there was 3 of the original 10 so called “rebel” Labour MP’s from Scotland who voted against the watered down new version of the Bill.
Irene Campbell was then a fourth Labour MP from Scotland who was not originally on the list of 10 Labour “Rebel” MP’s from Scotland who opposed the original format of this bill.
The 4 were Irene Campbell-Tracy Gilbert-Brian Leishman-Euan Stainbank .
So only a total of 4 Labour MP’s elected in Scotland voted against the Welfare Bill yesterday.
37 Labour MP’s elected last year in Scotland and 33 of them sided with the party yesterday in voting ‘Aye’ to allow the government’s (condensed version of the) Welfare Bill to pass in the HOC – previously in in the Bill’s original format there were 27 who were putting party before some of their constituents as they were not prepared to (supposedly) “Rebel” against the party and their Welfare Bill when it , as a Bill, included cruel and punishing aspects to it that penalised and punished disabled people.
As to Labour MP Rachel Maskell’s amendment to the bill to try to bring it down, well Brian Leishman still opposed the bill but it seems that Maureen Burke who also signed Maskell’s amendment was then a convert as she voted ‘Aye’ for the watered down Welfare Bill thus siding with the party.
Obviously as yet there is no new article on the BBC website via the Scottish pages on what happened via the capitulation of the government to avert losing the vote yesterday , or indeed how Labour MP’s elected in Scotland voted as they , the BBC and Labour in Scotland, are both still trying to formulate some spin to aid Anas Sarwar and his Labour party in Scotland in prep for next year’s Scottish elections.
Sarwar is on standby awaiting a ‘New direction’ to be advised on his (latest) position on the Welfare Bill as his official statement on this matter aka fiasco that is controversial as a event for the new Labour government (weakened and wounded and now proven to be sh*te).
Meanwhile some voters in Scotland are still intending to keep voting Labour so they ask “Can I have some more” ( as in more cr*p government decisions and failures).
Wha is indeed like some of us………..spot the difference with both Brexit voters and Trump voters with those who keep voting Labour, Tory, Lib Dem & also now Reform UK in Scotland……cut-nose-spite-face kind of vibe really.
(Interesting is it not that the supposed -but not- Scottish Sun- Scottish Daily Express-Daily Record all have a front page headline on Gangland stories in Scotland almost as if the vote on the Welfare Bill yesterday did not happen -The so called but not Scottish Daily Mail also has nowt on their front page on this but instead has chosen to headline a #SNPBAD NHS story- the quaintly named Scotsman has a main front page headline on a Gender related matter and also a wee section on the front page on how “the PM had to make a late concession on the welfare Bill” – so if you want to “Read all about it” you need to either go onto social media or read newspapers that at least in this instance wants to communicate some topical , relevant news as in recent political news that shows a failure by the UK government).
Liz S
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