Above how ‘our’ media report the world for us. Below, the actual facts, from Public Health Scotland today: The Scottish Government set a Standard that 90% of people referred for help with problematic drug or alcohol use will wait no longer than three weeks for specialist treatment that supports their recovery.Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals starting treatment across all substances: problematic use of drugs (94%), alcohol (91%) and co-dependency (93%). https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times-1-july-2022-to-30-september-2022 Continue reading Factcheck: NHS Scotland beats all drug and alcohol treatment targets

From Public Health Scotland today: Quarterly uptake rates remained high in Scotland; over 95% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months old, with the exception of rotavirus vaccine, which had 93.2% uptake.94.2% of children had the first dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age. This rose to 95.9% for children who had reached age 5. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland-quarter-ending-30-september-2022/ From NHS England for 2021: No vaccines met the 95% target Coverage for the 5-in1 at 5 years decreased from 95.2% in 2020-21 to 94.4% in 2021-22. Particularly concerning, given the deadly nature of measles: … Continue reading Only Scotland meets deadly measles immunisation target

On BBC UK this morning, several times, the story above. From BBC Scotland, with no mention of the nursing strike or the First Minister’s role in averting it, this morning: The UK Government is suing a company that made personal protective equipment for £133 million. PPE MEd Pro won a contract to supply gowns but the Government wants its money back. The company was ‘referred’ to the Government by Scottish-born Baroness Mone. Referred? Doesn’t that sound like she was acting against the company on our behalf? On the BBC Politics site at the same time: PPE Medpro won contracts through … Continue reading As nurses strike everywhere else, Reporting Scotland protects Baroness Mone

BBC Scotland has more than 800 words today under the heading: Scottish school subjects could be axed due to cuts, union warns but not one word on the pupil-teacher ratio, that most important piece of information in assessing how well schools are resourced in Scotland. The piece opens with: Some school subjects will have to scrapped as a result of the Scottish government’s budget, a teaching union chief has said. The general secretary of School Leaders Scotland claimed the number of pupils per class would also rise, with teacher vacancies to remain unfilled. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64017092 We’ve been here before with police … Continue reading Better pupil-teacher ratio under SNP means Scotland has SIX THOUSAND EXTRA teachers!

The Sunday Times today has their latest poll as the fifth in a row putting Yes ahead. Wikipedia has 6, above. Channel 4 on November 23, had a different question and got an ever better response: Take out the don’t knows/cares and it’s nearly 60% for YES in the above. AND the longer-term British Social Attitudes study, on October 8 2022, with a sample of 44 280 households, had 52% in favour of YES: https://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-39/constitutional-reform.aspx Continue reading ‘Fifth poll’ is really eighth?

Former Scottish First Minister, Jack McConnell, headlining in the Sunday Times below, attracting apparent ridicule from the article below, with : His claim: The evidence? A poll indicating 68% ‘believe the changes pose a safety risk in women only spaces.’ The actual data were 51% for Yes, 24% for No and 25% for Don’t know. Excluding the Don’t knows changes the meaning of the response. The Don’t knows might be just relaxed about the idea. #https://forwomen.scot/04/10/2022/public-opinion-polls/ Anyhow, that’s a poll of what people, based on what they’ve read and heard in media largely campaigning against the act. What’s the real … Continue reading Jack McConnell should be ashamed of himself, again

More than 1000 words, in the above BBC UK report today, but not a trace of Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting attacking the Conservative Government for refusing to take any part in this real crisis. He’ll be busy writing for the Telegraph to tell everyone how tough he’d be with nurses. In the above from BBC Scotland, in 944 words, plenty of space for these 193: Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane told the programme the problem was not new and recalled one of his patients waiting eight hours for an ambulance in 2018. Highlighting the stress on all … Continue reading Labour Shadow Health Secretary won’t criticise Conservatives over ambulance emergency

From People Polling on 7 December, UK Labour at 47% but Scottish Labour at only 24% with SNP at 54% From YouGov on 14/15 December, UK Labour at 48% but Scottish Labour at 27% and SNP at 46%. Other recent polls have no ‘regional’ breakdown. Two weeks ago, I could write: Regular readers will now have seen reports here of more than 10 sub-polls with 80% suggesting the same thing. Scottish Labour’s reported resurgence is a media myth and wishful thinking by media supporters of Anas Sarwar’s rightist, Starmerite, politics. You can add another two today. Time for a Scottish … Continue reading Two more polls confirming Scottish Labour lagging behind lead to call for a new leader

From the ever-jaundiced Tom Gordon today: THE Scottish Budget delivered by John Swinney overstates the amount of money going to public services and hides likely cuts to schools, a leading thinktank has said. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23196611.ifs-says-scottish-budget-overstates-spending-hides-cuts/ Leading thinktank eh? The IFS likes to present itself as impartial but the evidence says otherwise. In August, I wrote: The Institute for Fiscal Studies has an ‘observation paper’ ie no actual research, just opinion, arguing that the Scottish Government’s plans to standardise care across the country will only make things worse. They argue: Does anyone think that NHS health boards should be broken up and shared … Continue reading SNP budget attacked by pro-Union thinktank

In the Herald of Fake News Enterprise today: THE number of investigations into patients dying or being seriously injured in A&E as a result of potential failures in their care has more than doubled in Lothian during the pandemic. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23191468.surge-number-severe-adverse-events-lothian-es/ There were 60 Significant Adverse Event Reports (SAERs) to end October 2022, in Lothian. So, first of all, the sneaky wee ‘in Lothian‘ delayed till after the first impression that this applies to all of NHS Scotland, confirming, of course, their disappointment that it doesn’t. Second, here are the figures for the carefully chosen previous two years: but, of course … Continue reading A perfect case of misinformation on NHS Scotland