One thought on “How does the NHS in Scotland compare with the rest of the UK? The facts that BBC Scotland today twists and dodges (Number 2) The Dark Side of NHS England and Jackie Baillie’s only waiting times ‘victory’ over Scotland”

1. So comparative analysis of NHS performance across the UK has now become of interest to BBC Scotland! Pity with all its resources, it can’t do a better job.

   We’re told in the website article today (April 3) that regarding the four-hour standard for time spent in emergency departments: ‘Despite Scotland largely performing better than England and Wales over the years, it is still considerably below its target.’ (my emphasis) However, the BBC’s graph seems to shows that Scotland has ALWAYS performed best over the years: this conclusion is supported by a quick examination of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s NHS Performance Tracker.

   It’s noteworthy that for A&E services, the BBC Scotland article focuses only on the four-hour waiting time standard, a performance metric so important that NHS England opted in June 2025 to lower its standard from 95% compliance to 78% compliance, as the BBC piece acknowledges.

   You may recall the attention given by BBC Scotland and other MSM organisations last year to 12 hour or longer stays in A&E in Scotland and the postulated links to excess deaths. Media coverage back then typically shied away from comparisons with the equivalent 12-hour performance figures for England and Wales.

   As the 12-hour metric rather than the four-hour one has become the prime focus of media attention in Scotland, one might regard it as odd that in a long web-based article today (April 3) focused specifically on cross-UK NHS comparisons, BBC Scotland omits any mention of the more seriously impactful 12-hour performance metric. This despite directly comparable statistics being readily available.

   Having made much in the past of how harmful long stays in A&E may be, perhaps it would be too favourable close to an election to NHS Scotland and especially to the Scottish Government for BBC Scotland to report how substantially better Scotland performs on this important matter – and has long done so.

   LikeLiked by 1 person

   Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.