By stewartb The waiting times performance figures for major emergency departments in NHS Wales during the month of October 2023 have been released. We’re now in a position to make comparison with similar performance metrics in Scotland and England. Summary table  – October 2023 Metric NHS England NHS Scotland (‘main sites’) NHS Wales (‘major’ departments) % attendances meeting 4-hour standard 55.6% (‘Type 1’ departments) 64.2% 58.2% % spending over 8 hours in A&E Not reported 12.7% 23.4% % spending over 12 hours in A&E 10.7% (‘Type 1 and Type 2’ departments 5.4% 14.6% The basis of these tabulated statistics is … Continue reading A&E performance across nations: contrasting the responses of the Labour Party in government and opposition

The 1 000 residents of Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada, are to have no ferry service at all this winter, from 30 November, because the regional government refuses to pay the $60 000 per month cost. The Scottish Island of Greater Cumbrae, population 1 300 will have 52 crossings per day heavily subsidised by the Scottish Government. All 52 were on time yesterday. Campobello Island lies at 44.9 deg N, 10 degrees south of Greater Cumbrae at 55.7 deg N. Source: Continue reading A tale of two similar islands – one gets no winter ferry service at all and the other gets 52 crossings per day

Today, the Guardian has: Sepsis, or blood poisoning, is a potentially fatal condition triggered when the body reacts to an infection by attacking its own tissues and vital organs. It leads to an estimated 48,000 deaths a year in Britain. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/23/poor-people-much-more-likely-die-sepsis-study This somewhat dated figure (there is no reliable update) is based on the English data just increased pro rata for the other 3 nations. I can’t find up-to-date accurate Scottish data for a bit of whitabootery but I can find this: While deaths caused by sepsis have fallen by 21% since 2012, thanks in part to the work of … Continue reading Sepsis deaths in Scotland falling fast thanks to world-leading patient safety programme introduced by SNP Government in 2007

After Anas Sarwar’s win last, Dame Jackie Baillie wins an award sponsored by Drax. Drax! Even the name triggers fear. Drax the Destroyer? I don’t know why energy giant Drax is sponsoring the Herald’s Scottish Politician of the Year award but it’s a bad, bad image. See this: A U.K. biomass power plant which received more than £800 million (C$1.36 billion) in government subsidies for renewable energy production last year has been pegged as the country’s largest source of CO2 in the country in a new analysis by the climate think tank, Ember.   The Drax plant, which generates electricity by burning … Continue reading Scottish Labour deputy leader wins award for serial killer analogy and endorses UK’s biggest CO2 emitter and one of most dangerous polluters in Europe

From BBC Wales yesterday: Only 52.9% of cancer patients in September started definitive treatment within 62 days of it being suspected, well below the 75% target. This marked the second worst month since the new target came in. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67488546 From Public Health Scotland on 26 September: 73.7% of patients started treatment within the 62-day standard, compared with 69.5% in the previous quarter. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2023/ So, NHS Scotland’s performance is 39.3% better and almost hits the Welsh target but that remains at 95% here. Has the Welsh Health Secretary been blamed? Who? The Labour Government in Wales gets away with just blaming … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s cancer treatment performance nearly massive 40% better than in Labour Wales despite their sneaky reduction in target

The flow of bad news on ferry fiascos in British Columbia, Lake Ontario, Washington State and New Zealand seems endless. From the West Seattle Blog yesterday: Until a few years ago, Washington State Ferries service was reliable, dependable, fully filling its role as part of the state highway system. Now, WSF sails in turbulent waters daily – with shortages of boats and workers, cancelling sailings and/or falling behind schedule. On the other side of a 15-minute rain from West Seattle, ferry-dependent Vashon Island is suffering in a big way, since the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route has been hit especially hard. It’s long been down … Continue reading ‘The ferry crisis hurts right now’ in Washington State

By stewartb I applied the following search terms – ‘Scottish universities’ and variants thereof – to the BBC News website this morning. I wanted to check if two positive stories I’d come across (belatedly in one case) had received any news coverage. The clue to what I found is probably in the description – ‘positive’ stories! (Unless you know otherwise!) True to one of the missions of TuS, let’s make a contribution to filling the positivity void! Universities Scotland on 31 July 2023 issued a press statement with this heading: ’84% of Scottish graduates say going to university got them … Continue reading On benefits of Scottish university education and research – and countering bias by omission!

This morning, I counted 8 BBC Scotland reports on Michael Matheson’s iPad, 6 still up on their website, compared to only 1 on Baroness Michelle Mone but even that was about her marriage breakup and not her PPE fiddling. The BBC Scotland reports are of course only the tip of a bing of coverage. See: Now here’s something new today, that in a democracy an unbiased taxpayer-funded public service should tell you about but hasn’t and probably won’t: Continue reading More than a week and dozens of reports later, how BBC Scotland hides what you really need to know about the Health Secretary’s work

The Herald today is joining in with an emerging media narrative to suggest the SNP has failed in its promises for school attainment improvement with Scottish education has been tarnished – despite Sturgeon’s promises and If the SNP can’t get education right, they are in deep trouble. Education is infinitely improvable, never perfect and the mass of data gathered enables tabloid academics to selectively paint a picture that suits an anti-SNP agenda. I was Associate Dean for Quality Assurance in an Education faculty. I wrote teacher development materials for the 5-14 Mathematics: Information Handling which were issued to all schools … Continue reading Fact check: The SNP has got education right. Say otherwise and you know nothing