From SNP Media today: The SNP has branded UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock “cack-handed” after he made crass, politically-charged comments about the UK’s handling of COVID. Speaking at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, Hancock claimed “the union has saved lives” and failed to face up to the reality of the UK government’s mistakes made during the pandemic. SNP Deputy Westminster Leader Kirsten Oswald MP said: “Matt Hancock’s bid to politicise Covid is distasteful and cack-handed in the extreme – as he rightly says, the virus doesn’t respect political boundaries, and countries large and small across the world have had to … Continue reading Matt Hancock “cack-handed?”

In the Herald today: MATT HANCOCK has disputed claims he mishandled care home discharges and said the Scottish Government had the “same issues” to deal with as he did. Speaking to MPs this morning, the health secretary was put under pressure to explain the allegations made against him yesterday by former senior aide Dominic Cummings. He’s right, we did have the same issues. To make sure hospitals were not overwhelmed and to protect the vulnerable more at risk in hospitals than back in care homes, NHS Scotland and NHS England discharged patients, some not tested, more quickly from hospital wards back into … Continue reading In defence of Matt Hancock

In the Guardian today with usual misuse of ‘UK’: Hospitals have been accused of burying the results of dozens of secret reports written by expert groups of doctors asked to investigate patient safety problems. NHS trusts have been criticised for “disgraceful secrecy” for not publishing the reports, and often not even sharing them with regulators charged with overseeing standards of care. While trusts have asked medical royal colleges to undertake 111 “invited reviews” over the last five years, they have put only 16 in the public domain, BBC One’s Panorama will reveal on Wednesday. In addition, just 26 of the … Continue reading Hancock not responsible for hospitals burying dozens of patient safety reports

Readers will remember many examples of the politicisation of health issues in Scotland, over the last few years, as even the merest suggestion of some kind of remote responsibility for deaths led to photographs of and calls for the Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, to resign. At the same time, BBC England and Wales used photos of hospital buildings and pointed the finger at health boards. The English Health Secretary was never accused and, indeed, he would have been shocked to have been, given that he appointed the boards to take responsibility. Today, BBC Lancashire report: A police investigation into the … Continue reading 8 deaths in NHS England, police investigate, but no mention of Matt Hancock

In the Herald today: A care home provider has told Scots families that designated visitors will be required to produce proof of vaccination before seeing loved ones despite the First Minister confirming that it would not be a pre-requisite for indoor visits. In a letter to families, Barchester Healthcare, which runs around 200 homes across the UK, said that ‘our current thinking’ is that all designated visitors should be vaccinated and be prepared to produce proof they have received the jag. Readers will know that the Scottish care home visiting rules are based on the fact that 99.9% of all care home … Continue reading English care home visit rules applied in Scotland because of Hancock’s failure

On the Marr show yesterday, the Health Secretary responsible for the pandemic strategy in England was asked about the rates in the UK as-a-whole. Why? Does using the term England soften the blow a little? It drags the other three nations into the failure but, of course, it’s quite inaccurate. The UK has only the second-highest death rate: Tragically for our friends and relatives, everyone, down there, England has the highest number of deaths per head of population. Wales has a slightly worse figure and Northern Ireland a slightly better figure than Scotland but the rate in in England is … Continue reading Matt Hancock, why has England the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world and will you resign?

On Sunday, Andrew Marr asked the First Minister for Scotland: ‘There will be lots of people at home in Scotland in their eighties, watching this interview, still waiting for their vaccine appointment and reading that down south in England, more than 50% of eighty-year-olds have been vaccinated already. What would you say to them?’ This required her to point out that Scotland had followed the firm and clear guidance from the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to vaccinate care home staff and residents first and then the over-eighties. As a consequence, Scotland had vaccinated a much higher percentage … Continue reading Matt Hancock, why has England vaccinated far fewer in care homes than they have in Scotland?

After weeks in 3rd place, with only sad Wales below them, England has pushed past Scotland into 2nd place in the UK league for the percentage of its population vaccinated. The Conservative Government, with their adolescent obsession to be ‘world-beating’ contaminates everything they do. How have they overtaken Scotland? It’s clear from comments yesterday. In the Commons yesterday, replying to a question, Matt Hancock said that 24% of care home residents had been vaccinated. Sufficiently stupid or just callous, he didn’t think to conceal the figure. On the same day in her media briefing, the First Minister announced that the … Continue reading Hancock and England’s dash to be first in the Vaccination League will cost lives

By Brenda Steele ‘So much for the 10pm pub curfew. Once again, it seems, the Tories have led by example – if it’s okay for them to break it, it’s okay for you to break it too. According to the Mail, of all papers, Matt Hancock – the Health Secretary who championed lockdown measures like the curfew – was caught breaking it after a late-evening vote: Health Secretary Matt Hancock was last night accused of breaking his own Covid curfew by drinking in a Commons bar beyond 10pm – where he made a crass joke about the Government’s test and … Continue reading Hancock’s Happy Hypocrisy Hour?

I know, I’ve done this sort of thing before but it’s important to build up a body of evidence to prove something is more than a one-off. From BBC Essex this morning: A maternity unit has been rated inadequate after a “lack of learning” from a mother’s death has led to the “same failings” in new serious cases. Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors turned up unannounced at Basildon University Hospital, Essex, after a whistleblower voiced fears. The watchdog told the department to improve last year, but returned due to concerns about six cases this year. The unit was criticised following … Continue reading Horrific failures in Essex hospital lead to no calls for Hancock’s head