Why is Reporting Scotland still headlining the three-day-old news of ‘hundreds’ of operations cancelled in one NHS board when it never tells us of the month after month 98% of thousands completed across the country?

with faulty sterilising equipment that’s led to the cancellation of hundreds of operations, is fixed.

Professor John Robertson OBA

BBC Scotland‘s insert in BBC Breakfast this morning opens with the above story. The BBC Scotland website and STV last mentioned it three days ago.

They’re desperately milking a rare NHS Scotland ‘failure’ that they hope you will connect with the SNP Government in some way.

They never report this good news based on figures that appear month after month:

NHS Scotland was ready to complete 98% of operations in August 2025 despite steadily increasing demand

From Public Health Scotland 7 October 2025:

During August 2025, there were 24,750 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 3.1% higher (+753) than the number planned a year previously in August 2024 (23,997). Overall, the number of planned operations had been steadily increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted service provision, until May 2024 when increases in the 12-month rolling average began to plateau. Since June 2025 this has started to increase again. For instance, in the latest 12 months, from September 2024 to August 2025, there was a 2.6% increase (+7,288) in the number of planned operations (290,982) compared to the previous 12 months (283,694). 

Of all planned operations during August 2025 in NHSScotland, 753 (3%) were cancelled by the hospital for clinical reasons, 754 (3%) were cancelled by the patient, 528 (2.1%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 75 (0.3%) were cancelled for other reasons.

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-31-august-2025/

Only the 2.1% cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons can be considered evidence of failure to perform. In most cases, these will have been due to unforeseen staff illness or a spike in emergency demand from, say, a multiple RTA of a factory incident.

In the context of increasing demand, this almost 98% performance is deeply impressive but will receive no media attention.

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4 thoughts on “Why is Reporting Scotland still headlining the three-day-old news of ‘hundreds’ of operations cancelled in one NHS board when it never tells us of the month after month 98% of thousands completed across the country?

  1. Reporting Scotland editors and presenters suffer from an increasingly common condition among the Media which physically pains them to broadcast GOOD news about an SNP governed Scotland . It used to be rare but since the 2014 Scottish Referendum it has spread exponentially among those exposed to the Better Together virus , particularly among that contingent who are known as ”Proud Scot but… ”

    This condition has been identified by medical researchers as an offshoot of the ‘Scotland is Sh*te’ virus which is endemic among London-based Jocks who have abandoned their homeland but who feel that to be fully accepted among ”The English ” they are compelled to trash anything and everything that is Scottish-based .

    Sadly there is no cure for this affliction nor even a vaccine to prevent its spread . However with the continuing demise of the MSM and the rise of independent sources of news it has been possible to gradually confine those affected to ever more pointless programmes , such as GMS and Question Time .

    Liked by 1 person

  2. “Why is Reporting Scotland still headlining the three-day-old news of ‘hundreds’ of operations cancelled in one NHS board”…….why indeed.

    Well they, the BBC ‘news’ teams in Scotland, need to hang onto (prolong) what they promote as being #BAD ‘news’….. that they then see as being another political weapon that they can use against the SNP…………it also helps to reinforce the BBC in Scotland’s current favourite UK political party’s message, as in the Labour party, and their political campaign of misinformation upon the Scottish NHS and the SNP.

    Meanwhile yesterday MSM Monitor posted this on ‘X’

    Waiting times in the English NHS have gone up for the third month in a row. It made the BBC News at One but was dropped from the News at Six. No politicians in sight. No health secretary. Sarwar and Baillie are lying when they claim waiting times are going down in England”.

    The BBC news reported that “Experts warning The (UK) government’s key NHS priority tackling the backlog is at risk. At the end of August the waiting list for routine treatments hit 7.41million, in May it was 7.36 million”.

    Then their English Health Correspondent Hugh Pym was asked what they could read into these numbers ?

    He said “Well it certainly looks as if it’s a difficult number for the (UK) government and for NHS England. These figures are for England because the narrative of falling waiting lists , thanks to government policy since the election, can now be questioned”

    Apparently one (UK) government source told Pym that “we always thought this was going to be a bumpy ride“………

    So it’s a “bumpy ride” for a Labour UK government with the English NHS waiting times but not for a “bumpy ride” for the SNP Scottish government with the Scottish NHS waiting times……….I see. Got it.

    So basically we have the BBC news teams in Scotland, the Chair of the Scottish BMA, Sarwar, Baillie, the English NHS Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the UK PM, all of Labour HQ & the branch office Labour party in Scotland all politicising the NHS in Scotland but England’s NHS is to be exempt from politicisation now that Labour are in charge. I see. Got it.

    (Labour HQ did however always politicise the English NHS when the Tories were formerly in charge as the UK government……..but now apparently, with them , Labour, in charge it’s somehow to be regarded as ‘different’. I see. Got it.).

    Pym noted the issues in England’s NHS , like the Doctors strike (where of course, in Scotland, Doctors here did not strike , as a settlement was reached between them and the SNP Scottish government in our Scottish NHS)

    He , Pym, also noted there was “other things to cope with” (where of course in Scotland and our Scottish NHS there are “no other things to cope with” for the SNP as the Scottish government, that is….if Labour , the Chair of the BMA in Scotland and also the BBC in Scotland are all to be believed) .

    He , Pym, also noted that “NHS England say that the issue really is that you have got record numbers of procedures and treatments being carried out in England. But even more people are coming onto the waiting lists and that they are having to cope with more demand”.

    (Of course, more people coming onto the Scottish NHS waiting lists, that would never be allowed to be said, accepted or even be seen as being appropriate as an ‘excuse’ or ‘issue’ that either the Scottish government or any NHS Health Board in Scotland could use to communicate as a reason why it becomes more difficult “to cope with more demand” anywhere here within Scotland’s NHS).

    Also Pym noted “But looking at (English) A & E the figures, they don’t make for particularly pleasant reading , the numbers waiting more than 12 hours , so called trolley waits, after a decision to admit to a Hospital but having to wait to get a bed, that went up again to more than Forty Four thousand and there are warnings that it’s going to be a very very difficult winter. The Royal college of Physicians are saying that their members are worried , the Royal college of Nursing are saying corridor care could turn out to be a major problem in the months ahead” (In England).

    (Meanwhile in Scotland , in the politicised Scottish NHS, the “winter” that is coming up in Scotland will apparently be a breeze for the Scottish NHS….if , that is, you listen to the likes of Anas Sarwar & Jackie Baillie who say that all Scottish NHS woes begins with, are all linked to and so only exist within the Scottish NHS because of the supposed mismanagement by the SNP as the Scottish government.

    Which as a false argument, is then broadcast by the BBC news teams in Scotland and then is also backed up , as a (false) Labour party argument, by the Chair of the Scottish BMA who declares that the “NHS in Scotland is dying”………but he , as Chair of the BMA in Scotland, always ‘fails to notice’ -or rather he chooses to ignore– the actual very much “dying” NHS services that exists elsewhere within the UK as controlled by, checks bloody notes, other political parties/governments. So once again. I see. Got it).

    BBC news teams in Scotland incessant attacks upon the Scottish government are at times when the BBC in Scotland know that elsewhere, like say in England , with for example the English NHS, their English news teams at BBC HQ are promoting that the English NHS is failing to meet set targets….that is they, the English NHS, are struggling to overcome their English NHS problems with their increasing waiting times…..

    So then as a way to counter that….we then get the BBC news teams in Scotland tell us that there is no “Scottish exceptionalism” with our Scottish NHS…………as opposed to them, BBC in Scotland, ever communicating to Scottish viewers and (Radio) listeners that the Scottish NHS is ever (often) actually out performing other NHS services elsewhere, as in the stats show that the Scottish NHS is often performing better than NHS services elsewhere………apparently that is not allowed .

    Apparently Scotland can only ever get #BAD news………as can all things connected to the SNP, as a party and also as a Scottish government…….with absolutely no external factors that can ever be considered that negatively impact our public services…….. as clearly that is only reserved for elsewhere within the UK….as in it is reserved as ‘excuses’ that are always used for others, more so for the English public services , as controlled by the UK (English) government(s)……..

    So do you now see and so have you now got it all Scottish people, especially those people within Scotland who are often heard to parrot (repeat) what the Labour party say and also what the BBC news teams in Scotland say

    (Then also repeat what others, who are also hostile opponents of the SNP, have to say too)

    That is those accusations by opponents of the SNP presented as being supposedly factual here in Scotland (but are not) ……….

    Then apparently , we Scots are all supposed to recognise and acknowledge that it’s ‘apparently’ not the same elsewhere within the UK …..as they (elsewhere) can make excuses, can cite and so quote external factors that impact their public services and so then what ….they, as other governments within the UK , are all to be absolved of all of their (many) mistakes, their (many) bad decisions, their (continuous) lack of funding on specific public services , their (obvious) mismanagement and their (clearly) prioritising and focusing their attention elsewhere……as in ….Nuclear.

    #LabourPutBombsBeforeBairns

    Well all of the above is not a argument that UK hostile forces can use against our Scottish government , as it is evidently pure partisan propaganda, which is the weapon of choice that all opponents, be they a political or a media source, choose to attack and so undermine the SNP with………….so if I see and also if I get it then why do others also not do so as well , within Scotland………why indeed.

    Liz S

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