From SEPA today Scotland’s summers are known for both sunshine and showers – but whatever the weather the country’s environment regulator will be collecting and analysing water samples, predicting water quality and keeping beach users informed over the next three and a half months. The Scottish bathing water season begins on 1st June and runs until 15th September, with 1,500 water samples taken by Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) staff at bathing waters around the country. In 2023 locals and visitors have more options than ever to choose from – with one brand new beach joining the list, and the … Continue reading 98% of Scotland’s beaches are safe to swim off!

Too busy with the SNP audit, BBC Scotland had no time to tell you what BBC UK, Wales and BBC Business had: Train strikes: How drivers’ walkout on Wednesday will affect you Which train operators will be affected on Wednesday? The following operators will be affected: Avanti West Coast Chiltern Railways CrossCountry East Midlands Railway Great Western Railway Greater Anglia Great Northern Thameslink Govia Thameslink Railway London North Eastern Railway Northern Trains Southeastern Southern/ Gatwick Express SWR depot drivers SWR Island Line TransPennine Express West Midlands Trains Although the affected train operators are based in England, some of their services … Continue reading Why should we tell you trains are not on strike? Find out yourself grandad!

The Scotsman and the Express are headlining supposed failure as 1 year waits for treatment fall by ‘only’ 16% in less than a year. They are, of course, ignoring this data covered here in March 2023: From the BMJ on February 10 2023: More than three million patients waited longer than 18 weeks for treatment in England in December, the highest number on record, show data for the NHS in England. In November 2022 a total of 2 902 274 waited 18 weeks or longer, and in December this figure rose to 3 051 661, the data on referral to treatment times show.1 https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p332 All … Continue reading Hospital treatment – shocking 14 times as many waiting more than 18 weeks in England than in Scotland

Public Health Scotland publish this graph weekly showing a steady fall in the number waiting for social care assessments and for receipt of a package enabling them to be discharged from hospital. It doesn’t look too impressive but that has a lot to do with the scaling of the graph axes and the choice of weekly intervals. I can’t find the exact data anywhere but, for people waiting for assessment, the drop looks like from 7 600 to 6 500 and, for people waiting for a package, from 5 100 to 4 000, in just 7 months. You could still … Continue reading How social care waiting lists are falling faster than they appear

From Public Health Scotland today for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment by the NHS in Scotland: the 90% standard was met, with 99.7% of patients attending a screening appointment within 52 weeks of referral. One patient waited more than 52 weeks to be screened. 325 patients were screened across the 4 IVF Centres, an increase of 14% compared to the previous quarter (285 patients). 97.5% of patients waited 39 weeks or less to be screened, a similar level to the previous quarter. 48.3% of patients were screened within 26 weeks, compared with 71.2% during the previous quarter. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland-quarter-ending-31-march-2023/ These are … Continue reading The 100% NHS Scotland performance that also saves thousands of lives but is never reported

A classic Neu Labour comment that tells us Starmer knows nothing. Margaret Ferrier is missing in action? Ferrier’s Westminster contributions in the last year: Shadowy Health Secretary, Ian Murray’s lack of action in the same time: Continue reading Starmer clearly knows little of Ian ‘Missing in Action’ Murray

Above, the recent Ipsos poll turned into Constituency seat predictions. If Scotland had retained the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, fiercely defended by both Cons and Labour, for Westminster elections, the Scottish Parliament would have 59 SNP MSPS, 5 Labour, 5 Cons and 4 Lib Dems. In Westminster, it’s currently 59 SNP MPs, 13 Cons, 4 Lib Dems and 1 Labour. In most recent historical periods and in most parts of the world, that would be enough. Continue reading If it was first-past-the-post – 59, 5, 5, 4!

A Scottish newspaper above, the UK Guardian below: Thanks again to Dorothy for alerting me to this. The Guardian makes it clear that this issue applies only to NHS England. I can find no evidence of such failures reported anywhere in Scotland. Perhaps many more beds per head of population averts this? The Herald, the Glasgow Times and even the National have the story with no mention of the word ‘England’ despite some easy clues in the use of the word ‘Trust’ rather than ‘Board’. Continue reading 25 000 patients forced to sleep alongside opposite sex only in England

NHS hospital bed numbers per 1,000 population  – Scotland better resourced than England and Wales according to new RCEM briefing By stewartb The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has provided summary data on NHS hospital bed capacity – ‘RCEM Explains: – Hospital beds across the UK’ – dated May 2023. See https://res.cloudinary.com/studio-republic/images/v1684400862/RCEM-Explains-Hospital-beds-across-the-UK-May-2023/RCEM-Explains-Hospital-beds-across-the-UK-May-2023.pdf?_i=AA On yet another objective measure, NHS Scotland performs favourably when compared to equivalents in England and Wales. This is not to ignore the challenges and deficiencies presently in NHS Scotland. But it most certainly is to counter the relentless gaslighting tactics of the political opposition in the … Continue reading SNP Government ensures NHS Scotland has more hospital beds per head of population than any other part of UK