From Cancelled planned operations Month ending 30 November 2025, published today: There were 25,996 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 5% higher (+1,232) than the number planned in November 2024 (24,764). Overall, the number of planned operations has been increasing since COVID-19 affected services. Of all planned operations during November 2025 in NHS Scotland, the cancellation reasons were; 798 (3.1%) by the hospital for clinical reasons, 814 (3.1%) by the patient, 504 (1.9%) by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, and 69 (0.3%) for other reasons. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-30-november-2025/ Only the 1.9% cancelled by the hospital … Continue reading Year after year NHS Scotland ready to fulfil 98% of all ops on time with less than half the cancellation rate of NHS England

Aberdeenshire has just had one of the worst winters in recent years but not by any means that rare an event for them. In February 2025, by a vote of 43 to 21 the council voted for a budget including it its appendices a plan to remove 1 200 out of 2 100 grit bins. From the minute on page 39: Winter Maintenance Fund – Allocated for unexpected winter and emergency operations. The existing revenue budget is based on a mild winter scenario, meaning additional funding may be required in harsher conditions, however the reserve was drawn down in 2023/24 … Continue reading Aberdeenshire SNP councillors tried to keep grit bins but were outvoted by Unionist councillors keen to cut costs based on assuming ‘mild winter scenario’ and who allowed bin removal even DURING winter to endanger pensioners

How does funding per patient for GPs compare in NHS England and NHS Scotland? In NHS England it’s between £155 and £165.1 In NHS Scotland it’s around £210, a third, 33% higher.2 Is that it? Is the SNP now resting on it’s laurels? Nope, see this: General Practice in Scotland is set to receive a record £531 million investment over the next three years, marking the largest funding boost to core GP services in the country’s history. The announcement follows an agreement with the British Medical Association and is subject to future budget approvals by the Scottish Government. The funding will … Continue reading GPs get 33% more per patient* in Scotland than in England and the funding trend is up in Scotland, down in England

In the Guardian today: The government will not meet its targets to save wildlife in England and is failing on almost all environmental measures, the Office for Environmental Protection watchdog has said. In a damning report, the OEP has found that seven of the 10 targets set in the Environment Act 2021 have little likelihood of being met by 2030, which is the deadline set in law. How is the Scottish Government getting on with this? If you depend on the ‘Scottish’ media you might not know any of this. Scottish Government initiatives push Scotland well ahead of the rest of the … Continue reading As UK Government fails 7 out of 10 targets for England, Scottish Government initiatives push Scotland well ahead of the rest of the UK in preserving nature

From the Guardian today: Four NHS hospital trusts in England have declared critical incidents after a “surge” in A&E admissions driven in large part by patients with flu, norovirus and respiratory viruses. Three trusts in Surrey and one in Kent sounded the alarm after a “surge in complex attendances to A&E departments”. A critical incident, which is usually declared when A&E departments are not able to necessarily deliver all of their services safely, is the highest alert level used by the NHS and allows bosses to take immediate steps to create capacity. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/13/four-nhs-trusts-in-england-declare-critical-incidents-after-surge-in-ae-admissions Media in Scotland have, of course, tried to invent … Continue reading ‘Begging the public to stay away from A&E?’ No Scottish health board has actually said that or declared a ‘critical incident’ but four in NHS England have

The Scotsman’s right-wing tabloid headline today is based on this from Audit Scotland published on 13 November 2025: Altogether, the net benefit to Scottish Budgets since the introduction of devolved taxes in 2015/16 is around £4.1 billion. https://audit.scot/publications/financial-sustainability-and-taxes Services not improved eh? What is the evidence in the Scotsman? It’s a Survation UK-wide opinion poll of 2032 so that means around 200 at most, a tiny percentage of the Scottish population in a poll carried out by a pollster with a bad rep finds a barely one hundred folk who think that? I can’t see the data tables published yet. … Continue reading SNP’s more progressive taxation raised £4 billion for higher employment, lower crime, shorter hospital waiting lists, more teachers and better schools

In the Guardian today: London’s murder rate has dropped to its lowest in more than a decade with police in the capital and the mayor saying it is now one of the safest cities in the western world. The figures come as those on the radical right criticise the city for having a crime problem, hoping to gain politically from such claims being believed. In 2025, the Metropolitan police recorded 97 homicides in London, down from 153 in 2019, and down from 109 in 2024. The fall in the number of homicides comes despite a rise in London’s population, to 9.1 million compared … Continue reading Labour Mayor welcomes murder rate falling but to still nearly 40% higher than that in Scotland