From Public Health Scotland today: During the quarter ending 31 March 2022: 430 patients attended an IVF screening appointment, a substantial increase compared to the previous quarter (364 patients) and the average of all quarters of 2019 (367 patients). the 90% standard was met and in fact, there have been no patients screened who waited over 52 weeks since the quarter ending 30 September 2020. 99.8% of patients waited 39 weeks or less with half of the patients screened within 26 weeks, similar to the previous quarter. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland-quarter-ending-31-march-2022/ Scotland’s IVF programme is major and long-running success, never seen on Reporting … Continue reading 99.8% of IVF patients seen on time by NHS Scotland despite large increase in demand

From Bob Lamont Ah….but….patients are still “in danger” according to Martin Williams, presumably of embarrassment on lying down on a non-existent bed, or embarrassment for Martin in misquoting so Jackie “Tsunami” Baillie can do her usual “Wir doomed…” and have a pop at Humza Yousaf… I note the cause of this latest spleen venting is the RCEM again, but on this occasion Dr Boyle defines how many beds are required IN SCOTLAND over the next 5 years… Really ? This is the Times article https://archive.ph/ZHUGl on the report from which Martin built his own, note NO reference to Scotland whatsoever, no mention … Continue reading Herald scare story on bed numbers

By Legerwood In the past decade the SG has doubled the intake of nursing students from 2,400 in 2012-13 to 4,837 in this coming academic year. They now get a £10,000 bursary and a Dependent’s Allowance if required. From the link: Student nurses and midwives entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 8.7% in 2022-23, to a total recommended intake of 4837 students. This will be the 10th successive increase in recommended student numbers, with the intake doubling over the last decade. To address the mental health and wellbeing impacts from the pandemic, mental health nursing will increase to … Continue reading SNP government DOUBLES training of nurses!

Scottish Labour is the source of the above hysterical claim but as is typical there is no evidence for it. Research by Edinburgh Napier University in 2015, found: It has been shown that despite the dominant view that the census is valuable, policy-makers are not necessarily closely engaged with the census for directing the development and implementation of policy. Those who contributed to the study provided a number of explanations for this. An external (who admitted that he was a “light” user of census data himself) drew attention to the core problem here: the census is a fundamental societal asset, … Continue reading Policy-makers rarely use census data but SNP will act on poverty

Needless to say, the Herald report finds no space for these data: So, Scotland has approaching twice as many beds available for patients than England or Northern Ireland and around 15% more than Wales does. And on staffing: Astonishingly, NHS Scotland has 50% more nurses than NHS England. Could the Scottish Government have played any part in this? Continue reading Scotland has most beds per patient in UK

By stewartb A few days ago (27 May) TuS drew attention to an article in The Herald with this message: ’SNP ministers accused of threatening university excellence with research cuts – University bosses have accused ministers of threatening Scottish research excellence after it emerged top institutions face swingeing grant reductions of up to 10 per cent. Growing pressure on Nicola Sturgeon’s government follows publication of research allocations for the 2022/23 academic year …’ See: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/05/27/university-leaders-accused-of-not-liking-the-facts/ The Herald’s piece related to a Universities Scotland statement written by Professor Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of St Andrews and Vice Convener … Continue reading Universities Scotland – risking a reputation for candour?

stewartb ‘you attack something like this by misrepresenting and then challenging what it is not.’ Indeed! I note there has been both discussion and practice elsewhere in the UK on this matter for some time now. A few examples: 1) BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour Wed ( 23 Sep 2015): ‘.. a look at Restorative Justices a system which allows victims of crime to meet or communicate with their offenders. It’s being increasingly used in cases of women who have been raped or sexually assaulted. We hear from a woman who was raped about how it’s helped her, the Chief … Continue reading Reporting Scotland: Misrepresenting and then challenging what it is not

As the Scottish Tories, blinding us with their polished brass necks, introduce a Right to Recovery Bill for drug addicts, BBC Scotland, once more misrepresent the facts by careful selection of data. Yes drug deaths were at a record high as recently as 2019 but, crucially, the news is that they began to fall in the second half of 2020 and were down 8% in 2021. They did the same, 5 days ago. You can read the full detail here: Continue reading BBC Scotland still hooked on drug deaths ignores ‘the news’ of an 8% fall in 2021

BBC Scotland announce the new Restorative Justice process which will allow victims to meet perpetrators. There is no suggestion of coercion. Who could imagine there would be but, immediately, a critic from Rape Crisis Scotland is wheeled in to suggest another SNP initiative is flawed. This is a classic ‘Aunt Sally’ or ‘Straw Man’ argument where you attack something like this by misrepresenting and then challenging what it is not. Continue reading SNP Restorative Justice process will not be forced on rape victims…duh!

The above map of unattributed origin is currently high on the reddit r/scotland thread. It’s a stunning illustration of how different Scotland is becoming, post-devolution. Regular readers will know that this is a theme returned to here, now and again. On May 11th, I wrote: In the Herald today from William Loneskie of Lauder: The Labour Party was founded on the principle that working people of all countries have more in common than divides them. The problems of workers in Glasgow are exactly those of workers in Leeds. Mr Stenton claims that Scots think differently from English. Rubbish. We speak the same international language, … Continue reading Different Scotland