Both headlines are true but McArdle chooses one piece of evidence as the headline and I choose the other. Here is the detail: The targets are that 95% of patients should be treated within 31 days of being diagnosed and within 62 days of being referred by their GP. The first target has been surpassed for the last 9 months and the second has been missed for 7 years though performance has been improving for the last 15 months. Which target is the more important? I don’t know. What is the news? Isn’t change newsworthy? The details from NHS Scotland: … Continue reading Scotland’s cancer waiting times target met for third time in a row

From NHS Scotland yesterday: 94.7% of the 9,267 people who started their first drug or alcohol treatment during the latest quarter waited 3 weeks or less, with little change in recent years. https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/lifestyle-and-behaviours/substance-use/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times/ They’re too modest. They’ve been beating the 90% target for years now. Continue reading Scotland’s drug and alcohol treatment waiting time target smashed!

Have we peaked? Views down from 414 000 to 340 000, an 18% fall. Is it all downhill from here or can we recover? I had secretly been dreaming of the half million but it’s not to be. I had no idea about the surge and have no more about this drop. I propose we just keep on truckin’. Global reach colouring-in is unaffected: We are still in negotiations to have Greenland and Spitzbergen coloured-in properly, ie pretty in pink. The situation in Colombia is not to be sniffed at, or is it? We’re certainly narcked. Most-read reads: Continue reading Leading Cybernat site suffers massive fall in popularity!

The Holyrood Health and Sport Committee report, published today, featured widely in the Scottish media to suggest that the national system for the supply and demand of medicines was in a state of crisis. The committee is convened by Lewis MacDonald (Labour) and has a Unionist party majority of 5 to 4. It would be wrong to name the civil servant here. I have complained to him already about the choice of Professor Hugh Pennington, an anti-independence political activist, to give advice to the committee on the Scottish Government’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic in Scotland. I’ve had no answer. … Continue reading Why is a Scottish civil servant misrepresenting the evidence to his own committee and enabling media exaggeration?

We rarely stray into football matters and are too scared to touch Old Firm stories, but this an attack on the Yes Movement’s capital in exile, Dundee. See this from BBC Scotland today: It would be “mutually beneficial” if Dundee United appoint Steve McClaren as head coach, says former English FA managing director Adrian Bevington. The ex-England manager is among the candidates speaking to the Scottish top-flight newcomers about the vacancy. Bevington says the move would offer the 59-year-old the chance to “improve” his reputation after recent setbacks. See that last bit? McClaren was last a success as depute to … Continue reading Now BBC Scotland try to undermine fitba in Indy City with English cast-off

Once more, the GMB exploits its members in a political campaign to undermine the SNP Government, on behalf of Scottish Labour. Richard Leonard’s wife, Karen, is a National Officer and hosts the GMB in Schools twitter feed We’ve seen this before in their hypocritical mobilisation of women carers and others against the SNP-led Glasgow Council, for compensation due to discrimination which they actually facilitated on behalf of their male workers, under the previous Labour administration. More recently, we’ve seen the unedifying sight of supposed socialists protecting private and corporate care home owners from crticism, by redirecting it onto the SNP … Continue reading Just one more GMB campaign exploiting their workers to attack SNP?

This is another attempt by Lewis Macdonald to exploit his position as convener of the Health Committee to feed the media with a scare story. On further checking, I find no slamming. He has previous. In April, he got Prof Pennington in to tell the Scottish Government what it should be doing about contact tracing. Here are the opening lines in his report for BBC Scotland today: MSPs have called for urgent reforms amid “huge concerns” about Scotland’s “incoherent” medicines system. Holyrood’s health committee said there were “serious failings” in the supply of medicines in Scotland, saying the system “fails … Continue reading Scottish Labour and BBC Scotland fecklessly try to use Holyrood Committee report to undermine SNP Government with fake news, again

Two advisers to the Scottish Government explain how the Scottish strategy has succeeded and how the English one is doomed to recurring lock-downs, to a glum-faced Jon Snow. Why has this happened? The two experts attribute much of the credit to the Scottish Government’s strategy of more careful lock-down and release and its consistent, clear and transparent communications, but these have mattered too: NHS Scotland has a higher staffing ratio. Scotland’s hospitals with their in-house cleaning did not have mass Norovirus closures last winter as NHS England did. NHS Scotland has a vastly superior A&E performance. Scotland’s 50 unique coronavirus … Continue reading Channel 4 News confirms success of Scottish Covid strategy and condemns Tory failures

Ms Janet Agnes Monifeith (87), of Crieff, has reacted angrily after reading of the Scottish Finance Secretary, Kate Forbes (17), handing proposals to re-start Britain’s economy, to the UK Government. Seriously, I’ve been impressed by Forbes right from the start but this surpasses any previous slap-down for a UK Chancellor. According to the Herald: FINANCE Secretary Kate Forbes has handed proposals to re-start Britain’s economy to the UK Government – including plans for a national debt plan and extending Scotland’s financial powers. The UK-wide £80 billion proposals have been drawn up to help the economy recovery amid the emergence from the lockdown … Continue reading Scottish Conservative councillor calls Finance Secretary a ‘cheeky wee besom!’

Do we take Scottish Government achievements too much for granted? By stewartb We learn today of the Westminster government’s plans for new investment in the school estate in England: £1bn for 50 major school building projects is being promised a further £560m for repairs to crumbling school buildings. The BBC News website reports: “The 50 school building projects, which will be identified later in the year, will start from September 2021, in a 10-year programme with £1bn in funding. There will be an extra £560m for upgrades and repairs to schools for the next academic year – and £200m for … Continue reading Westminster acts at last to catch up on Scotland’s school building and maintenance achievements