stewartb I noted in the BBC News article on bank and agency staff costs in NHS Scotland this from the Labour spokesperson Jackie Baillie MSP: “It is clear for all to see that a decade and a half of SNP failure has left our NHS facing a perfect storm of falling staffing levels and soaring agency costs. “From soaring agency bills to lengthening NHS waits, the people of Scotland are now paying the full price of SNP incompetence and useless Humza Yousaf’s disastrous track record as health secretary.” Strong condemnation of Scotland’s devolved government and a personal attack on one … Continue reading So what must Ms Baillie think about NHS Wales under Labour?

From BBC Scotland today: Spending on NHS temporary staff in Scotland reaches record high – Annual spending on NHS temporary staff in Scotland has risen to a record high of more than £560m – a rise of over a third compared with the previous year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65821861?at_link_id=CDD99680-046B-11EE-A8D7-3A223AE5AB7B&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_origin=BBCScotlandNews&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_medium=social&at_link_type=web_link&at_format=link Not mentioned in the BBC Scotland report: An investigation by the Labour Party showed that during 2021-22 60 trusts in England spent more than £800m on temporary staff and the total spend on bank staffing exceeded £1.7bn. Extrapolating these figures to all trusts in England would mean that the total spend on temporary staffing … Continue reading NHS England spends nearly 60% more on temporary staff

From Public Health Scotland today: For the quarter ending March 2023, 74.2% of children and young people were seen within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 70.2% for the previous quarter and an increase from the 73.0% for the same quarter ending March 2022.  https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times-quarter-ending-march-2023/ Continue reading Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times improve for second month

From Public Health Scotland today: Of all cancelled planned operations during April 2023, for NHSScotland, 606 (3.1%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 655 (3.3%) were cancelled by the patient, 387 (2%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 85 (0.4%) were cancelled due to other reasons. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-30-april-2023/ Only those operations cancelled due to, for example, staff sickness, an unexpected rush of emergency operations resulting from road crashes, work-related accidents or whatever can be seen as any kind of failure. That NHS Scotland could have done 98% on time if patients themselves … Continue reading Stunning performance as NHS Scotland equipped for 98% of planned operations

From Public Health Scotland, today, clear evidence that delayed discharge ‘bed-blocking’, from hospitals for any reason, have been in steady decline for six months and are approaching pre-pandemic levels. Code 9 complex reasons: It is acknowledged that some discharge arrangements may be more complex due to the specific care needs of the person. Complex delays have been captured as code 9 from 2006. Bed occupancy is currently 85%: https://www.gov.scot/publications/inpatient-census-2022-part-1-mental-health-learning-disability-inpatient-bed-census-part-2-out-scotland-nhs-placements/pages/3/ Continue reading Steady fall in ‘bed-blocking’

BBC Scotland, last night exposed a Care Home owner who seems not to be a Tory or Labour donor. It’s taken them three years to find one. Three years ago, we had this: By stewartb So the care home visited by Anas Sarwar MSP is being used to justify his claim of care homes at ‘breaking point’? If so, this company’s situation must have changed radically since 22 December 2022. This is the date Applecross Nursing Home Limited submitted its Annual Financial Statements for the year ending 31 March 2022 to Companies House. See https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC177933/filing-history Notably, the document includes a ’Strategic … Continue reading BBC Scotland Disclosure team catch-up three years after we disclosed Anas Sarwar backing a care home cash cow milking the tax-payer

‘Family-run‘, of course, means private and for-profit. I’m guessing the Sarwar’s know the owners but their wee researchers should have checked them out first. The Applecross Nursing Home in Glasgow was inspected twice, unannounced in January and then in June 2019, only 8 months before the Covid pandemic scythed tragically through the population of care homes. On the first occasion, care in key areas was ‘weak‘ and even by the second they were just ‘adequate.‘ 8 died there from Covid, during the pandemic. Clearly a good model for what Labour could do. Sources: https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/site-search https://www.copfs.gov.uk/media/2evhqgai/cdit-care-home-deaths-foi-18-11-22.xlsx Continue reading Scottish Labour campaign in care home that was rated ‘weak’ or only ‘adequate’ pre-deadly pandemic

I’ve been mulling this one over for some time, as you can see from the above. Prof Lindsay Paterson, a mere statistician with no meaningful experience in school-level education in Scotland, but the regular Union ‘rentagob‘ to talk it down for English audiences, has latched onto the simple figures on ‘international comparison’ and ‘education inequality’ as his selling points to attract MSM editors. Both are meaningless. Critics, especially opposition politicians on the make and academics keen to impress them, rather than struggle with the more difficult task of impressing their peers with deeper understanding of how learning takes place, have … Continue reading Schools: Most disadvantaged attainment level more than doubles in only 12 years