Soldiers arrive 7 days after Storm Arwen and less than 24 hours before power is re-connected on Friday. They’re allegedly there to focus on welfare checks in communities still badly affected. 7 days? Don’t they have a rapid reaction force. What will they actually do in a ‘welfare check?’ Anything? Make a report to their commanding officer tomorrow just as the power comes back on? Have they been issued with non-slip footwear so they don’t get hurt and ambulances have to be called out? Why at 6pm on Thursday, have they no photos of them actually doing something? Is this … Continue reading Packing up their old kit bags after arriving too late?

Problems which saw some people turned away from vaccine booster appointments in Scotland have been resolved, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. Advice to clinics has changed so that people can get a booster jab three months after their second dose, rather than having to wait six months. She said a small number of people were refused a jab after “glitches in the system” while protocols were updated. She apologised to those who were turned away after making an appointment. The Conservatives said communication about the changes had been a “mess”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-59505253 They have quotes from two people. Is that … Continue reading How can we make them think it isn’t the best booster rollout?

You’ll find no mention, in the source many of us pay a licence for, of the above news that Scotland’s pandemic measures seeming to be working better than elsewhere but I thought you might like to know, so here it is: And today, the infection rate in England nearly twice as high as in Scotland. What could have caused this? Sticking with face coverings obligatory in public places? Whose idea was that? The SNP Government. Really? I’ve not see that on ‘the news.’ Continue reading Scottish infection rate falling but stuck in UK

By stewartb Before formulating your answer, it may be useful to know the government in question is Westminster! Readers of the TuS blog will recall many occasions when the media in Scotland, including notably BBC Scotland, have made much use of a phrase pulled from Audit Scotland reports critical of the Scottish Government or a Scottish public service. By contrast, we learn little or nothing from the media in Scotland about what the National Audit Office (NAO) concludes about the Westminster government. It’s as if people and businesses in Scotland are not UK tax payers too! A new publication from … Continue reading Will the BBC inform its Scottish audience that…‘… ‘government cannot have confidence its spending in many policy areas is making a difference’?

From Bob Lamont “Human Shield” ? For the Health Board ?That 23 clinicians are so sick of his nonsense that they felt obliged to complain officially is almost unheard of, yet Sarwar creates another conspiracy to cover up his own transgressions, he becomes more preposterous by the day.. As commented upthread, Sarwar’s medical training as a dentist enables him to distinguish between a preventative medication and one targeting an existing condition. In encouraging Mrs Darroch’s mistaken perception from her husband’s case notes of “treatment for an infection”, be is knowingly promoting a falsehood. I do not doubt for a moment … Continue reading ‘Sarwar should be struck off’

From cuckooshoe: In the Nursing Times on the 23rd July 2021 on the incidence and impact of Hospital Acquired Infections. The study was commissioned by the Scottish government and conducted by Glasgow Caledonian University. http://www.nursingtimes.net/news/research-and-innovation/first-of-its-kind-study-shows-hospital-infections-costing-scottish-nhs-46m-a-year-23-07-2021/ “It found that 7,500 hospital patients, or one in every 100, develop HAIs each year – costing NHS Scotland £46.4m annually. This equates to 1.1% of patients in Scotland acquiring HAIs, which compared favourably with previous estimates in the UK (7.8%) and recent studies in wider Europe (3%), said the researchers.” Continue reading Hospital infections in Scotland 8 times less common than UK

When I was young, maybe nine or ten, my dad showed me a drawn illustration in some pamphlet. It was a representation, from left-to-right, of brains, a Jewish, a Scottish and some other. The Jewish one was the biggest and the Scottish one was second-biggest. My memories are vague, but I think this article in goodness knows what kind of source, was suggesting that Scots had the second-biggest brains in the World and, perhaps, were one of the lost tribes of Israel. My dad was a lifelong and confirmed presbyterian, with RC friends but a deep anxiety about the Vatican’s … Continue reading My Generation and the Jewish presence

There’s not a word about Scotland’s current 4 point lead, 31.5% to 27.6%, over England in delivering booster jags or the evidence that the pace shows no sign of slacking. There’s sad desperation in how this graph is read: The Scottish Government target date is ‘by the end of January’ but based on BBC Scotland’s estimate they’ll miss by one or two days. Really? They estimate based on current trends and ignore the obvious probability that the rate will be accelerated? And, what about that angle of climb? You can do a lot with scaling the axes. See this alternative, … Continue reading Covid: By how many weeks will Scotland beat England to reach target of jagging all adults?

Douglas Ross has called for action over the scandal-hit Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow. What is the basis for a scandal? Two deaths have been linked to the the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. I’m guessing that makes four parents, two at least groomed by Scottish Labour to believe there had been neglect. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58618317 The deaths were in 2017, 4 years ago. The QEUH opened in 2015, 6 years ago. How many children have been treated since then? The QEUH has 244 paediatric beds and could thus have treated more than 1 500 children in that period with around … Continue reading ‘There is not a sound evidential basis on which to make a link between their infection, subsequent deaths, and the presence or proximity of pigeons or their excrement.’

Clearly fed-up of Sarwar’s serial attacks on them, over a range of unsubstantiated reports of pigeon poo fungal infections ‘linked’ to deaths or of infecting care homes with their discharges, 23 senior clinicians, all superior intellects with a more ethical approach to their work than him, they have at last come together to write a defence. Does anyone really believe that 23 highly-qualified professionals have been coerced by the board into providing a shield for them? Anyone who has worked in a reasonably functional institution like a hospital, a university or a big school would know that such a thing … Continue reading Labour Scandal: Human beings accuse Sarwar of using parental trauma as weapon