How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it

Professor John Robertson OBA

I’m grateful to one of our Anons and to Arty Hetty for alerting me to this, in the wake of Jackie Baillie’s scurrilous misuse of statistics to suggest Scotland’s hospitals were ‘death traps‘ for old folk falling.

People should be reminded that when JB was in government Scottish hospitals were death traps due to hospital acquired infections, which were affecting 10% of patients when Labour left office. The rate has now been halved and Scotland’s rate is lower than that in England and lower than the OECD average.

I had a friend who worked at major hospital in Edinburgh, was constantly ill with C-diff or something like that, had to take lots time off…when Labour had private company doing the cleaning..or rather they were spreading germs around the wards!

A quick check finds:

The prevalence of HAI was 4.9%, 2.5%, 6.1% and 1.2% in acute, non-acute, paediatric and independent hospitals respectively [in Scotland in 2006].

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(12)00277-0/abstract

The most recent comprehensive data on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in Scotland comes from a 2021 study led by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the Scottish Government. This study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, found that approximately 1% of hospital patients in Scotland develop HAIs annually, equating to about 7,500 patients each year. This incidence rate is notably lower than previous UK estimates (7.8%) and recent European figures (3%).

https://www.scotpho.org.uk/health-conditions/infections/data/healthcare-associated-infections/

So, hospital acquired infections under the SNP are between a fifth and a half of the level in 2006, under Labour, an eighth of the level in England and a third of the level in Europe.

Why, so good?

 In Scotland, the decision was taken in 2008, against the background of major problems in British hospitals with infections resistant to treatment. The Scottish ministry of health [Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon] banned any further contracting-out of these services, so that when existing contracts expire all work returns and remains in-house. It also financed the employment of 600 extra cleaners to raise standards of cleanliness.

https://www.epsu.org/article/uk-hospital-cleaning-brought-house-scotland-wales-n-ireland

New research shows that NHS hospitals that employ private cleaners are associated with a higher incidence of MRSA, a ‘superbug’ that causes life-threatening infection and has previously been linked with a lack of cleanliness…on average, the incidence of MRSA infection between 2005 and 2009 was 2.28 in every 100,000 bed days in trusts that outsourced their cleaning, compared with 1.46 bed days in trusts that used in-house cleaners –.a difference of almost 50 per cent. 

The research was conducted by the University of Oxford, with the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-12-21-nhs-hospitals-outsource-cleaning-%E2%80%98linked-higher-rates-mrsa%E2%80%99

19 thoughts on “How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it”

    2. By posting details/info online at every opportunity especially if you can give references to sites such as Public Health Scotland. PHS publishes reports every Tuesday on such things as A&E waiting times, cancelled planned ops etc.

      Post comments on X, Facebook etc and post your comments on Labour, Tory politicians/parties official sites. Make use of them to get the info out.

      Follow Scottish Ministers/Scottish Government sites and repost them or link to them.

      In this way you get round the media’s blackout of the news.

      Liked by 3 people

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      2. I agree.

        However, for still too many the MSM carries too much weight in terms of truth/authenticity (stop laughing at the back) and a posting on a politician’s website/media page will get labelled, “those fanatical separatists”.

        We need an outlet than can fight fire with fire and be taken seriously by most sensible people.

        I do appreciate that social media has more clout than I sometimes realise.

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. I don’t think the MSM carries as much weight as it once did. It has been a slow drip drip eroding their reach and the trust put me in what they report.

          Part of that has been the rise of social media platforms such as X etc and blogs which pass on factual, referenced information/rebuttals.. If the information in posts is properly referenced then the charge of ‘fanatical separatists’ won’t stand up.

          Similarly reposting official statements/information from the SG and Ministers about what they are doing goes some way to counter the near total blackout of such news by the MSM.

          Liked by 2 people

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  2. Excellent reserach there..I looked and couldn’t find much about it online. The AI result did though come up with the fact that Labour outsourced cleaning services causing infections and deaths, and that the SNP took back those services into public hands. Sigh, you can even trust AI to come up with more of the truth than all other sources, yikes!

    Liked by 3 people

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    2. Outsourcing of cleaning services in hospitals started in the late eighties under the Tories. In 1989 I was working in a lab in Stobhill Hospital. There were constant complaints about the cleaning which resulted in frequent visits from the ‘cleaning’ manager. Part of the problem was that when the private companies took over they changed the Terma sand Conditions of the existing cleaning staff and not for the better. This resulted in many of them leaving. Their replacements did not know what was required and neither did their company appointed managers. A recipe for disaster.

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. Yes, as far as the Tories’ privatising/outsourcing agenda was concerned cleaning is cleaning and the context is unimportant so cleaning a shop is the same as cleaning an office, a school, a hospital, etc.

        Companies sold a ‘package’ and they had crews who moved about premises to ‘deliver’ the cleaning ‘package’. It was all presented as ‘efficient and economic’. It was essentially about maximising profit by ‘driving down costs’. That is cutting staffing levels, cutting wages and providing a minimum ‘product’.

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  4. Now of course we have Covid-19 as a major hospital acquired infection because f5ew if any mitigations that would stop itransmiss3ion of the virus are in place in hospitals. Or anywhere else f5or that matter

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. O/T

    Talking of Labour……

    Last year in October there was an article on the BBC website.

    “Scottish government avoids defeat over housing emergency ‘failure’”

    “Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar put forward the motion which was debated by MSPs at Holyrood. It was defeated by 60 votes to 54 with eight abstentions”.

    “Instead, a motion amended by the government which removed the claim it had failed in responding to the emergency passed by 59 votes to 55 with eight abstentions”.

    “Sarwar stated homelessness on the rise” and he also said “Every number a human being in need of help and every missed target the breaking of dreams, of hopes and aspirations.”

    (Of course “help” , fulfilment of “dreams”, “hope” and “aspiration” are all things that Anas Sarwar’s Labour party , as the new UK government , are failing to deliver for all people within the UK and are also things which Anas Sarwar would also fail to deliver to the people of Scotland , that is in the unlikely event of him ever becoming our next Scottish FM…)

    The Scottish government’s Housing Minister responded to Sarwar by him saying….

    “I once again call on the Labour UK government to use its upcoming budget to scrap the bedroom tax, reverse the 9% capital cut to Scotland’s budget and permanently uplift the local housing allowance.”

    (Of course all UK (English) governments, including Labour, are conditioned to restrict money and powers to the Scottish government as it is their mission as the English (UK) government to try to make the Scottish government fail as a Scottish government ,especially if it is controlled as a Scottish government by the SNP, and then they , UK Governments, hope that will see a decline in support for Scottish independence, that is the real method to all of their UK government and party madness).

    So as Sarwar last October proclaimed his support for those who were on homeless then what is the news today connected to is HQ party………..

    Well today it is being reported that the UK (English) Labour Housing Minister fails as a government minister , fails as an MP and also fails as a human being but succeeds as a alleged greedy Landlord , as today on the BBC website there is an article on the UK (English) politics page with a headline……..

    “Housing minister hiked rent weeks after removing tenants”

    The BBC article refers to her as “Britain’s homelessness minister” where it states “ Britain’s homelessness minister increased the rent on a house she owns by hundreds of pounds, allegedly “within weeks” of the previous tenants’ contract ending”

    “The I paper reported that four tenants who rented a house owned by Rushanara Ali in East London were sent an email last November giving them four months’ notice that their lease would not be renewed”.

    “It says the property was re-listed shortly after the tenants moved out, at a rent that was £700 a month higher”.

    Asked about the Ali’s actions, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “I don’t know any of the details of this but I understand she has followed all the rules in this case.”

    ( I know nothing says Cooper, however as if by some miracle , she, Cooper, does know that “no rules were broken”, well that is the kind of response that we all come to expect from a Tory is it not, quite illogical and yet so apt when one considers the source, perhaps Yvette Cooper could read the ******* papers and watch the news on TV and then become more enlightened instead of having a ‘sweep sweep nothing to see here’ position).

    So basically since coming to power as the new UK government last year the public have seen absolutely no change with a Labour UK government from the previous Tory UK government ….

    No distinct “Change” in policies, rhetoric, party division, scandals, weak excuses, broken promises, accepting huge donations from wealthy donors, protecting the wealthy, targeting the poor and vulnerable and then also in their Leader Sir Keir Starmer suspending some of his own Labour MP’s when they, as Labour MP’s , decide to put their constituents before their party. (coincidentally a previous Tory PM also do this….hence why Boris Johnson’s majority decreased in the same way that Starmer’s is also now decreasing as a majority in the HOC).

    So surely this latest scandal (one of many) could be be regarded as Labour having a very very very poor vetting system that picks greedy , selfish, scandal generating people as their political candidates as apparently those other candidates, who were not selected, were far far far too left wing and so would not be right for a right wing party led by a right wing Tory like Sir Keir Starmer.

    So then we really really really do not need the likes of Anas Sarwar assuming that he can try to ‘educate’ and ‘inform’ (aka virtue signalling) the Scottish government on what ‘human beings need in respect to housing” .

    However if Sarwar is really so so so passionate about it then he should be contacting his own Labour HQ and asking why the Hell their English Labour Homelessness Minister has allegedly done this, as surely, as an action, it is 100% everything that she should not be doing in her respective role…..unless she and her party once again want to be (rightly) seen as ******* hypocrites , callous, greedy and also absolutely bloody useless.

    (Remember this story has been run by a major newspaper, the I newspaper, so one assumes facts were checked prior to publication though one still has to add ‘alleged’ as we still have to hear her, the Housing Minister’s, defence to this allegation. Is it a sacking offence if proven to be true or will Starmer do a Boris and just ignore it and hope that it goes away….#NoChangeWithLabour).

    Of course he , Sarwar, if asked , could also respond in the same way as Yvette Cooper, and just say that he does not know the details but believes that she, the English Housing Minister, followed all of the rules.

    (Though Sarwar would omit that it was also seemingly very tactical, callous and also obviously money orientated as an action by a government minister and by a so called ‘human’ being)…..

    That’s because Sarwar does specialise in non answers as his (non) responses as he confidently always assumes that the media in Scotland will neither challenge him nor pursue him for any real answers when times are hard for Labour ….which is now a frequent occurrence.

    You know with all of the S**t that has gone down with all of UK parties then it really does put into perspective the so called ‘SNP financial Police investigation’…….where all of the UK parties and their UK media went to great lengths to try to present it as being the ‘political crime of the century’ .

    Unfortunately for them as UK political parties and as the UK media it proved to be minor as a political event compared to the competition, as in all of the UK political party scandals, that were all way way way too strong in the WTF stakes of political and personal scandals……….as in other political UK parties whose ‘crimes’, aka scandals, were far more excessive and also greater in them being way way way more substantive political (and personal) crimes…..(as in both an individual basis as UK party MP’s and also on a UK party basis, especially as members of a UK government and collectively as a UK government also).

    (Remember in August 2024 there was also another housing scandal linked to a Labour MP, where a Labour MP was reported as renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations, Jas Athwal, a newly-elected Labour MP for Ilford South, owned 15 rental flats, making him the biggest landlord in the House of Commons….this news on the poor state of his rented properties happened prior to Anas Sarwar accusing the Scottish government of failing in Housing in October 2024…….. #LabourSlumLandlord)

    So in the immortal words of Brenda from Bristol on this latest (alleged) Labour party scandal (as in the English Housing Minister).

    “Not another one”.

    Liz S

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    1. *So as Sarwar last October proclaimed his support for those who were on homeless then what is the news today connected to is HQ party………..

      “on homeless” ????…..nope !

      So as Sarwar last October proclaimed his support for those who were homeless then what is the news today connected to is HQ party………..

      Liz S

      Like

      Reply

      1. 🙂

        Aye, with too many typos in my above comment….again.

        I give up, honestly really bad mistakes….OMG….(no, I really do give up now ….Ha Ha).

        Best to be a reader not a (bad) writer…….also Ha Ha (but still very true).

        Liz S

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