Headlining in the Herald today: SOCIAL care in Scotland is at “very real risk of collapse” this winter amid rocketing insurance premiums and a workforce exodus, MSPs have been told. Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, warned that the sector is now “haemorrhaging” staff to better-paid and less stressful jobs in retail and hospitality, and the coming months will see “more and more providers going to the wall”. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19711602.warning-social-care-scotland-very-real-risk-collapse/ Macaskill is one of the more trustworthy voices in this but I fear he’s not giving us the full picture on the root cause of any exodus or closures – greedy owners. … Continue reading Because of corporate greed and meanness

PEDANT ALERT! After many decades as a dominie (not that!) I twitch at the sight of a misplaced apos trophe or even just a single plural error. Thus (:-)) that should be crises not crisis unless it’s about oil workers not caring (about ecology) or care workers not oiling enough (scratching folk). PYTHON ALERT! Come up with your own explanation of the oil and care crisis. Keep it clean. AND a ? Continue reading It’s CRISES unless….

In the Herald today: NURSING leaders involved in a pay dispute with the Scottish Government are considering their next steps after a ballot of members found that almost six out of 10 could be prepared to go on strike. An indicative ballot for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found that as well as the 58 per cent who would be prepared to go on strike, almost nine in 10 (89.5 per cent) were prepared to take industrial action short of a strike. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/19711768.six-10-scottish-nurses-strike-amid-pay-dispute/ When was the last time we had a laugh at an inept, deliberately misrepresented strike ballot in … Continue reading Less than 20% of Scottish nurses might, perhaps, maybe strike

By stewartb ‘Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says the Scottish government has to stop blaming the coronavirus pandemic on its failure to run the NHS’ For perspective, from the Nuffield Trust health think tank on England (11 November 2021): ‘Health and care system stretched beyond its limits as winter approaches’ ‘Responding to the NHS monthly performance stats from NHS England and NHS Improvement, Nuffield Trust Deputy Director of Research Sarah Scobie said: “We are only at the beginning of a long and difficult winter and it is already clear the health and care system is stretched beyond its limits. … Continue reading Alex Cole-Hamilton unfamiliar with expert opinion

From SNP Westminster Press Office: The SNP has ramped up pressure for an immediate full public inquiry into the rampant Tory sleaze and corruption scandals, following yet another day of damning sleaze revelations. The call follows reports that –   Scandal-hit Tory MP Geoffrey Cox missed a number of votes in Parliament as he was on a trip thousands of miles away in Mauritius. It comes after earlier revelations that Cox took advantage of lockdown rules to vote in the Commons by proxy so that he could go to the Caribbean to work on his second job. Separate analysis published in the Guardian also … Continue reading Clear pattern running right through corrupt Tory government.

Catching up, six hours after BBC Breakfast reported the same, the opposition leaders are platformed by BBC Scotland: Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross says “unnecessary lives are being lost that could have been saved” because of pressure on Scotland’s health service And Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar highlights the case of a 55-year-old man who died in the stairway of his flat while waiting for an ambulance Mr Swinney acknowledges the pressures and says a “whole system” approach is being taken to make improvements to the ambulance service, A&E and the wider NHS But Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton … Continue reading Ross, Sarwar and Cole-Hamilton undereducated bloodhounds

Thanks to https://www.reddit.com/user/unix_nerd/ for alerting me to this. Though the report does include six references to the role of the Home Office in regulating what happens here, the headline which many only read, does not make that clear. Though the text does make these Home Office references it does not clarify for the reader, explicitly, that nothing that happens here is an SNP Government responsibility. Thanks to confusion in many heads and the headline, it needs to. Continue reading Conservative Government risking safety of women refugees

I never learn but it’s been some time since the last. Continue reading BBC Complaint: Ambulance waiting times ‘across UK’ this morning

Headlining at 6:00am and repeated every 30 minutes or so, across the UK news, full of dramatic claims of a system in crisis and a clear indication that this is happening ‘across the length and breadth of the UK.’ This report comes from the College of Paramedics (No ‘Royal?’), a trade union, and offers of course, no data. The story is not even on their own website! The BBC interviews one person and an anonymous paramedic. Notably, neither in their broadcast nor on the website, BBC Scotland don’t seem to know about these developments: BBC 1 Breakfast only have images … Continue reading ‘Across the length and breadth of the UK?’ Evidence?

Scotland has now vaccinated a higher percentage of its population on all three vaccines, leaving the other three nations lagging behind. BBC Scotland have uncovered concern about rise in cases in Dumfries and Galloway but have stopped reporting vaccinations these days. A source tells us they’ve just lost interest now. It’s no fun when we’re no longer lagging behind. Continue reading Scotland ahead on all three vaccines