Operations may be cancelled by the surgeon or by the patient themselves, for good reasons. There will always be some of these and they tell us nothing about the performance of the NHS. Cancellations due to staff or facility shortages do tell us something and when they are less than 25 and falling it means something good, very good. For this figure to ever be zero, you’d need more operating theatres and surgeons than could be afforded and accept long periods of emptiness and idleness. In November 2021, 624 (3.0%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 397 … Continue reading Cancelled operations fall for second month to less than 2%

From NHS Scotland today: In November 2021, the average number of beds occupied per day due to delayed discharges was 1,563, which is more consistent with pre-pandemic figures. This is a decrease of 3% compared to October 2021 when the daily average was 1,619. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly-figures-for-november-2021/ Continue reading Number of hospital beds occupied due to delayed discharges falls

from SNP Media today: The SNP has slammed the Tory government after new National Grid figures reveal Scottish generators will be unfairly penalised and forced to pay £465million a year in transmission charges by 2026/27 – while England and Wales will be handed a subsidy of £30million a year. It follows industry concerns that Scottish renewables firms pay huge fees to connect to the National Grid – while equivalent English projects are paid to connect to the very same grid. Branded the ‘Great Scottish Renewables Robbery’ by Stephen Flynn MP, the Westminster government currently forces Scottish generators to pay the highest rates in Europe – … Continue reading Electricity transmission charges: England subsidised, Scotland to pay £465m

We know that reported case numbers are likely to be lower than actual infection levels because of non-reporting by many and because of failures in the testing programmes, especially in England. The UK-based Office for National Statistics employs sophisticated methods to generate more plausible figures In the period immediately after the new measures kicked in, in Scotland and were not applied in England, there is a sharp difference in the two estimates. Based on the ONS estimates, the infection level in England for 25th to 31st December 2021 (6%) was 32.7% higher than in Scotland (4.52%). Wonder why the Torygraph … Continue reading ONS reveals England’s case rate is 33% higher than in Scotland

In 2006, Professor Gilbert Burnham and three others, published in the Lancet an updated estimate of the official death toll in the Iraq War, of around 100 000. They suggested 601 000. Labour Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, was an explicit ally of the US president, George Bush, who launched the campaign and was responsible for deceiving Parliament and the people of the UK as to the justification for the war. Today in the Daily Record, the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, says of Tony Blair: “Knighthoods are not made by me. Clearly former prime ministers do get … Continue reading Scottish Labour leader forgives war criminal

For some time, I’ve been reading in Scotland’s MSM of probable increases in cancer deaths due to reduced referral, diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic. Commonly, these reports have been platforms for opposition parties to attack the Scottish Government’s handling of the pandemic. Nearly two years since the first measures were introduced, I see again anecdotal evidence used to suggest a crisis of some kind. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but the data are not there: Taking account of Scotland’s elderly age profile, meaning that more are living long enough to develop and suffer from a cancer, the rate … Continue reading Cancer death tsunami: I’m still puzzled

Despite restrictions, Scotland suffering higher rate of infection than England Yes, yes, dears, the infection rate in Scotland having been lower than that in England since October 1st, started to climb above that on England on January 1st. The current rates are 260.4 per 100K in Scotland and 251.2 in England. Over the pandemic, Scotland’s rate has at times, but rarely, gone above that of England but, if we’re assessing the impact of measures, then the roughly 1 400 000 additional cases and more than 27 000 avoidable deaths, pro rata, might be more useful. Also, Scotland’s 22% lower hospitalisation … Continue reading Tory press rotten cherry-picking the stats to attack SNP

Claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been extensively investigated and found to be false. The link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, characterised as “perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years”. The fraudulent research paper authored by Andrew Wakefield and published in The Lancet claimed to link the vaccine to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. The paper was retracted in 2010 but is still cited by anti-vaccinationists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_and_autism Yet 10 years later, Murdo Fraser MSP, a lawyer, Rangers fan and self-reported thief of a Nelson Mandela plaque, was … Continue reading Murdo Fraser still asking if multiple vaccines can lead to autism

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has called on the Nats to remove the confusion over the terms ‘jabs’ and ‘jags’ and to follow the English practice, in the national interest. Fraser claims that a member of his local Q Anon SAGE group has evidence that English people living in Scotland are refusing ‘jags’ because they don’t know what they are. Anas Sarwar say he agrees in the national interest and points out that the Welsh use ‘jab’ and not the local term ‘pigiad.’ Alex Cole-Hamilton has offered to train Scottish vaccinators in how to say ‘jeb.’ Continue reading SNP refuse to follow England on ‘jabs’

Noting delays in processing test results, the very low figure in the last 24 hours in the context of a clear trend, of a sixth day falling from the peak on the 3rd January, is encouraging: It’s clearly a bit too soon to be trumpeting today’s figure as the lowest in more than 2 weeks but I’m just following Herald and BBC editorial guidelines for what may be extreme data, as in: Continue reading Cheer as new cases hit record lowest since Christmas Eve