Even yesterday, Tories and allied media were still talking of Scotland’s ‘no better’ performance in pandemic control. What could more clearly highlight the differences as the Express trumpets the UK’s first day without a Covid death. I was surprised. Not even in the summer of 2020? Not before now, in May? In Scotland, between June 30th and September 17th, there were 42 days with zero deaths and between May 1st and yesterday, there have been 24 such blessed days. Might the Scottish Government have done better than the UK Government? Continue reading 66 days with zero deaths: How Scotland DID diverge and often

Five years of abject failure to even come close to a target and NHS England decides just to stop measuring. That’ll do it. I wonder, where did they get that idea from? Has Boris ever reflected on his suggestion last year that Scotland’s health services were compromised? Will Reporting Scotland continue to ignore NHS Scotland’s success? Continue reading NHS England learns how to cope with failure from Boris

From NHS Scotland: For the quarter ending March 2021: 18,030 people started psychological therapies treatment in NHS Boards and NHS 24. This is an increase of 5.9% (1,007) from the previous quarter, and a decrease of 1.3% (238) from the same quarter the previous year.  Half of the people started their treatment within 3 weeks. Four out of five (80.4%) people started their treatment within 18 weeks, compared to 80.0% for the previous quarter, and 77.6% for the quarter ending March 2020. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of people should start their treatment within 18 weeks of referral … Continue reading Mental health waiting times improving despite return to pre-pandemic demand level

From NHS Scotland today: In April 2021, the average number of beds occupied per day due to delayed discharges was 1,087. This is similar to March 2021 when the daily average was 1,092, and lower than the monthly average prior to COVID-19 measures being put in place. Admissions have increased from 1 535 in January 2021 to 2 602 in April 2021: https://data.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/detail.html#:~:text=Emergency%20admissions%20have%20since%20increased,week%20ending%2025%20April%202021.&text=They%20have%20since%20increased%20to,is%20having%20across%20the%20NHS. Continue reading Bed blocking maintained at low level despite admissions returning to normal level

From NHS Scotland today: Of all planned operations during April 2021, 518 (2.8%) were cancelled by the hospital based on clinical reasons, 252 (1.4%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, 319 (1.7%) were cancelled by the patient and 52 (0.3%) were cancelled due to other reasons. After inevitable increases, to cope with increasing covid hospitalisations during the first wave of infections in February March 2020 and in October to December 2020, the number of planned operations cancelled due to ‘no beds available’, ‘staff not available’, ‘equipment not available’ and ‘theatre session overran’ has fallen for … Continue reading Very few operations now cancelled due to capacity despite increases in surgery

Down, down, deeper and down? The fall of a media empire? But one Inuit? Most popular title is enigmatic? Continue reading May 2021

In the Irish Times today: Experts at Aston University in Birmingham found that UK services exports from 2016 to 2019 were cumulatively £113 billion lower than they would have been had the UK not voted to quit the EU in June 2016. From SNP Westminster Press Office: The SNP has said that only by becoming an independent country can Scotland escape the damage being wreaked upon the economy and businesses due to the Tories’ extreme Brexit deal, after new research revealed the multi-billion pound hit to the UK’s services exports. Findings published by experts from Aston University found that services exports were £113 … Continue reading Brexit shrank UK services exports by £110bn, academics find

They never tire, never lose hope that one day some alleged SNP ‘crisis’ or ‘civil war’ will have the effect they want so much, but the record is poor. In March 2020, BBC Scotland tried this, only to see support for the SNP up to 53% in the next poll: In August 2020, the Telegraph tried ‘Scotland’s exam body ‘in crisis’ after decision to downgrade 124,000 results sparks furious backlash.‘ with this image but Ipsos Mori then put SNP support up from 51% to 54%: In November 2020, the Herald tried this, after Savanta had put the SNP at nearly … Continue reading One more SNP ‘crisis’ about to bite the dust

The above is the kind of news India is telling about itself today. India’s infection and death peak surge has turned out, pro rata, to be far smaller than that in England, Wales or Northern Ireland in January, smaller even than in Scotland. The BBC, only a few weeks ago, gazed obsessively at images from India as, like Italy, the US and Brazil before them, they provided a consoling distraction from the horrors in England they had tried to hide and now tried to replace with jingoistic accounts of the vaccine roll-out: Today? Not a word on the falling infection … Continue reading India’s recovery is not good news for BBC and UK Government

BBC Reporting Scotland open immediately with the claims of the Labour leader that the SNP Government is responsible for not enough turning out in Glasgow to be vaccinated. These claims continue to be foregrounded despite the Depute First Minister having outlined this morning the various measures being put in place to compensate for failures by individuals to turn out or to keep their contact details up-to-date. The leader of the third party is allowed to repeat his unsubstantiated claims, unchallenged. He calls for more testing when what we really need is more compliance from his constituents and like a true … Continue reading Reporting Scotland’s opposition