….have been deleted. The Times newspaper reports that National Clinical Director Jason Leitch’s messages cannot be handed over to official inquiries because he deleted them every day. It means there were none when a ‘do not destroy’ notice was issued [in 2022]. ‘Scotland’s’ media are already underway with a no-doubt uncoordinated but culturally-disposed trend whereby the content of messaging and emails is used to associate even ‘accuse’ the SNP Government with/for any supposed failures in pandemic management. They will do this regardless of the factual evidence of better performance – fewer deaths – here than elsewhere in the UK. Today, … Continue reading UK Government told ministers to set all WhatsApp messaging to instant delete

Today, BBC Scotland, the Herald’s Tom Gordon and the Sun’s Chris Musson have joined in the faux empathy for relatives of the pandemic dead with accusations that the Scottish Government plans to withhold WhatsApp messages on the basis that they have not yet produced them. Douglas Ross has led the charge with: Grieving families deserve answers and full transparency from this government. So why has Humza Yousaf not handed over key messages to the inquiry? Ross has, of course not been challenged with the above from 2 October. During the pandemic, his leader, Rishi Sunak, was Chancellor. The excuse seems … Continue reading BBC Scotland, Tom Gordon and the Sun back Scottish Tories hypocritical WhatsApp accusations

What impact ‘perspective’? – the case of NHS performance. By stewartb A longstanding theme in TuS is that when debating the performance of public services and of the associated responsible government, context and perspective are valuable inputs to decision making by voters. It is also a recurring theme that despite having public service broadcasting with an obligation to inform operating alongside commercial news media, Scotland is ill-served. Candidly, it is commonplace to experience BBC Scotland as a void when it comes to the provision of context or perspective. The case of NHS Scotland The NHS performance metric of greatest concern … Continue reading Royal College reveals Scotland’s far better wait times

That’s according to research for a think tank. The Commission on School Reform says ministers must work with councils to reverse the trend. The Scottish government says it’s looking at challenges that influence attendance…..the figures are based on Freedom of Information requests from the Scottish local authorities who were able to respond to them. The figures suggest nearly one in three children are missing an average of one day a fortnight, while nearly 20% of high school pupils miss a day every week…. A Commission spokesperson says children who miss a large proportion of school time are less likely to … Continue reading Lord MacConnell, Chris Deerin and Alison Payne’s shoddy research on school absences headlines but is worthless

In the first of many media reports on the Covid-19 Inquiry, that will distort the truth, deceive audiences and upset relatives, BBC Scotland has: Some care home residents may have been “neglected and left to starve” during the pandemic, Scotland’s Covid Inquiry is expected to hear. Some care home residents may have been “neglected and left to starve” during the pandemic, Scotland’s Covid Inquiry is expected to hear. The data presented in the graph above and in the full report Excess deaths from all causes, involving and with dementia as the underlying cause: Scotland 2020-2022 from the Scottish Government in … Continue reading Scottish Covid Inquiry: NO EVIDENCE that care home residents were ‘left to starve’

From Alasdair Galloway Here’s an idea (for discussion) In my previous contribution I “spoke of many things” to paraphrase “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. I want to bring together a couple of ideas discussed in there. First “Is there anyone who doesn’t see the hand of the Americans behind the Good Friday agreement, and the influence of the Irish-American community behind that? If the Irish, why not the Scots? Why not use the Scottish community (or including the ‘wannabe’ Scottish community)? Such activity may be belittled by our critics (devolution doesn’t allow for foreign policy so ultra vires, embarrassing etc), … Continue reading ‘Were America to put it to Westminster that allowing Scotland to become independent was a good idea?’

In a campaign to mis-represent winter death data and equate it with A&E waiting times, the media have once more concealed the facts. From 2000 to 2023, winter mortality has increased from 23 379 to 24 427, by 1 048 or 4.5%, with yearly fluctuations in between. In the same time period, the proportion of over-65s in Scotland increased from 15.9% to 20.1% of the population, a 39% increase. So, despite a surging demand, NHS Scotland has held back the likely surge in deaths of the elderly with a range of better methods and performance. In a frankly disgusting and … Continue reading Winter death toll increase far lower than increase in older population suggests heroic NHS Scotland holding back tide and exposes disgusting scare mongering

The BBC Breakfast broadcasts and their Health website are making much of: Sepsis failings still causing too many deaths – ombudsman The UK Sepsis Trust estimates about 48,000 people die each year from sepsis-related illnesses, “thousands” of which are preventable. NHS England said it was working to improve sepsis management. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67204563 The report is, of course, entirely about England. There is a separate ombudsman in Scotland. Is there evidence of a comparable ‘crisis’ in NHS Scotland? Well, BBC Scotland has only a report of one of their reporters getting it during an interview: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63546160 We reported the evidence up to … Continue reading Sepsis deaths in Scotland falling fast

Tom Gordon has his regular carefully timed attacks on NHS Scotland under a picture of Humza Yousaf and Michael Matheson (Health Secretary) today: Scottish A&E performance at two-month low entering busy winter season Any Modern Studies pupil will know that if you want to consider the fitness of A&E to meet winter demand increases it would only be sensible to look at the data for last year at the same time and not picking a few weekly figures to meet your agenda. So in August 2022, 39 380 waited more than four hours to be treated. As we approach Winter … Continue reading Scotland’s A&E better prepared for Winter increases than last year?