What could have caused this spike in TuS readers last night? With the greatest respect, dear readers, the IVF story was by far the one of the greatest importance. They’re the future! Continue reading Ferry reports are more popular than babies!
By Professor John Robertson OBA Today, BBC Scotland’s Lucy Adams reports: Lee-Anne King has three sons at schools in Glasgow. They all have additional support needs – and, as a result, are among those most likely to be affected by cuts to teacher numbers across the city. Lee-Anne, 41, volunteers at a primary school in the Knightswood area and is also the chair of the parent council. She says the impact of the teacher cuts is already visible in the classroom at the school, which her 10-year-old son JJ attends. “Last week our deputy headteacher ended up teaching a class all … Continue reading “Progress cannot be made by focusing on teachers alone” in a system with the best pupil/teacher ratio in the UK
By Professor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland today: Waits over 26 weeks for a radiology test decreased by 27% (-1,557) compared to 31 March 2024; in addition, radiology waits longer than 52 weeks decreased by almost a fifth (-19%, -69).1 Source: The OBA – https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116 Continue reading Cancer treatment – massive fall in waiting times for radiology tests
By Professor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland today: 5,176,332 people were registered with an NHS dentist as at 30 June 2024 (94.5% of the Scottish population). 621,767 extensive clinical examinations were paid in the quarter ending 30 June 2024 under the new pay arrangements. In total, over 1.7million have been undertaken since the NHS dental payment reform was introduced.1 In England: Since the current dental contract was introduced in 2006, there has been no system of registration for dentistry in England. This means that, unlike with GPs, patients can attend any dentist that provides NHS services for a course … Continue reading 95% of Scots registered with NHS dentist
By Anonymous Keir Starmer tweeted a video on the 20 August with him and the (new) Welsh FM. In it he said: “I’m here looking at what a very important renewable project to discuss with the FM (of Wales as he was in Carmarthenshire) how we can work more closely together on the renewable projects of the Future to turbo charge the work we need to do on that energy transition”. “For the first time here in Wales, we’ve got a WM government that wants to work with the Wales government to deliver for everybody across Wales. So a very important initiative on energy, but more broadly a very important political initiative to show that we … Continue reading I thought that Keir Starmer declared that Scotland was to be the main focus for UK renewable energy?
By Professor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland, today, the above trend evidence and: During the quarter ending 30 June 2024, 372 patients attended a screening appointment. The 90% standard was met, with all patients screened within 52 weeks of referral.1 And from Fertility Scotland: Scotland is proud to be the only UK nation to provide up to three full IVF/ICSI cycles on the NHS for eligible couples with some of the highest pregnancy rates and lowest multiple births across all UK nations.2 In England: IVF: ‘People are being priced out of becoming parents’3 How free IVF saves lives and reduces NHS … Continue reading Scotland’s unique free 100% target-busting IVF service, saving lives and the NHS millions, year after year but to absolutely no media recognition
By Professor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland, today, we see that 68.1% of patients waiting for treatment, in the quarter ending 30 June 2024, were seen within 18 weeks, up from 65.1% in the previous quarter.1 From the BBC in May 2024 (most recent data), we see reported a figure of 57% for NHS England.2 NHS Scotland is thus performing 14.2% on the 18 week waiting list target. NHS Wales uses the easier 26 week target but still returns a figure of 57% seen within that time.3 Why does this target matter and matter more perhaps than the one-year … Continue reading Hospital waiting lists in Scotland – significant increase in those seen within 18 weeks to remain 14% better than NHS England and far better than NHS Wales
By Professor John Robertson OBA 2020 – 300333 2021 – 300747 2022 – 285974 2023 – 292702 2024 – 300070 There were 300 070 recorded crimes in Scotland in 2023/2024, up from the figure the previous year, but down from the pre-pandemic level and statistically, flat.1 No doubt this will be reported as an increase in crime, ignoring the meaninglessness of one-year variation and the unique effects of the pandemic in suppressing reported crime. All things being equal with 11 times the population, overall reported crime in England & Wales might be expected to be around 3.3 million but there were … Continue reading Recorded crime level in Scotland only returns to pre-pandemic level and less than half that in England and Wales after 17 years of SNP Government
In a year, CalMac makes around 4 000 sailings (not inc cancellations) between Ardrossan and Brodick.1 In 2022, they carried 692 518 passengers and 183 092 cars.2 So on average, each sailing took around 173 passengers and 45 cars. The MV Caledonian Isles, operating the route in 2022, takes up to 1 000 passengers and 110 cars.3 So, accepting the ferry may well full in high summer even with increased sailings, this suggests quite a lot of spare capacity in the system, massively subsidised for a population of only 5 000. Sources: Continue reading Arran islanders benefit from massively under-used, apparently far from ‘lifeline’ ferry service
Thanks to Anonymous for alerting me to this. In 2022 (latest data), Ayrshire and Arran saw 630 000 overnight visitors and 4.2 million UK day-trippers, 2.11 million nights were spent in accommodation and £345 million was spent. Around one quarter of those reported using a ferry. There is only one ferry route from Ayrshire – to Arran. So, a very significant part of the above benefits are gained by Arran, population only 5 058 out of 369 360 in Ayrshire and Arran. To quote Anonymous: How the hell did most of these people travel over to Arran? There’s only one … Continue reading Arran ferry credited with enabling massive tourism boost
Talking-up Scotland 