From the NHS Scotland Information Services Division today: Timely discharge from hospital is an important indicator of quality and is a marker for person-centred, effective, integrated and harm free care. A delayed discharge occurs when a hospital patient who is clinically ready for discharge from inpatient hospital care continues to occupy a hospital bed beyond the date they are ready for discharge. At the March 2020 census point, there were 1,171 people delayed. This is a decrease of 14% compared with the number of people delayed (1,364) at the census point in March 2019. In March 2020, the average number … Continue reading 14% drop in bed-blocking in Scottish hospitals for second month

In a damning inspection report from February 2020, the Care Commission found a horrific failure to control infection, in a London private ambulance service, just as coronovirus had arrived in the UK. Key extracts: The service did not have reliable systems in place tocontrol infection risk well. The service did notundertake cleaning audits to ensure cleanliness andhygiene standards were maintained. We identified a vehicle with a rusty floor at our previousinspection. We inspected the vehicle during thisinspection and found that it had not been repaired. Theregistered manager told us the floor had been painted,however the rust was bubbling under the … Continue reading BBC not reporting infection risk on private ambulances in London

There are 291 voluntary [not for profit] sector, 232 local authority and 727 private care homes in Scotland. https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Health-and-Social-Community-Care/Publications/2018-09-11/2018-09-11-CHCensus-Report.pdf In the last year, to March 31 2020, there were 158 complaints about voluntary sector homes, 2040 about private homes and 146 about local authority homes. https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/statistics-and-analysis There are thus 2.5 times as many private as voluntary homes but the level of complaints is 13 times higher. There are 3.1 times as many private as local authority homes but the level of complaints is 14 times higher. So, the level of complaints to private homes, taking account of the number there … Continue reading Private care homes for the elderly in Scotland complained about 4 times more often than voluntary or local authority homes

The BMA in Scotland has 16 000 members. Only 1 115 could be bothered to reply. So, that’s a self-selecting sample of 6.9%. Only 47% of those seemed to be fearful of the future. So that’s 3.5%. What can we say about the the 93.1% who decided not to respond or the 96.6% we didn’t claim to be fearful? I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that they are all confident that NHS Scotland will cope, but you’d be hard pushed to find any crisis of confidence in these figures. Could that be because of these, below? Staffing Level: NHS Scotland has … Continue reading 97% of Scottish doctors not that worried for the future!

I hesitated lest you think me uncaring for criticising a report suggesting unpaid carers are ‘close to burnout’ but, in the end, facts matter, regardless of the issue. The ‘study’ upon which the claims are based is, once more, evidence-free yet tosses big percentages around freely. The study is by ‘Carers Scotland.’ The Scottish report is at: https://www.carersuk.org/scotland/news/the-forgotten-families-in-lockdown-unpaid-carers-close-to-burnout-during-covid-19-crisis The most dramatic claim in the Herald report is: New research shows that our unpaid carers are having to take on a “staggering” 78% more work in care for their loved ones because the health care system is under so much pressure. And more … Continue reading Look, we are sympathetic but ‘the news’ needs a bit more evidence and a bigger sample than 0.13% or probably less

Two residents have died at a care home on the Isle of Skye where 56 people have tested positive for coronavirus. On November 6th 2019, the Care Inspectorate made a requirement for improvement in the adherence to cleaning protocols to ensure people were not at risk. The requirement was to be met by 31st December 2019 but due to inadequate housekeeping staffing it was not and the timescale was then extended to 31 March 2020. The full inspection report for January 24th 2020 can be downloaded here: https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/care-services?detail=CS2011300714 There is no mention of this inspection in the BBC coverage. Continue reading Now two dead but BBC Scotland still shielding the owners from publication of their failed inspection only months earlier

By stewartb A better awareness of our country’s ‘assets’ in scientific research and innovation is important for its own sake. It also helps counter patterns of corporate media and BBC reporting in Scotland on the Coronavirus emergency: (a) recently an over-emphasis on the ‘expertise’ of one retired professor; and too commonly (b) bias by omission in favour of profiling research happening somewhere else. Academics and public policy development Many senior academics are aware of roles and responsibilities in both public engagement broadly and contributing to public policy development.  For the individual the latter can be professionally fulfilling but challenging. Before … Continue reading The Not-Pennington Profiles – Issue Six of an occasional series

From sam: Four days ago the BBC ran an article asking how many deaths there were in England’s care homes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52284281 “This is a difficult figure to calculate. There are more than 15,000 care homes in England, compared with about 200 hospital trusts. There is a two-week time lag in the data collected for official statistics. The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are for the week ending 17 April. At that point, there had been 3,096 Covid-19-related deaths in care homes in England and Wales. This means that about 16% of all Covid-19 deaths to … Continue reading How many deaths in England’s care homes?

Thanks to Brenda Steele for alerting me to this. Two bitterly funny lines from the researchers: We found that the case for unity is primarily negative in Spain, with self-determination viewed unconstitutional and independence divisive and backwards, and more positive in the UK, with the Union seen as the instrument to facilitate the success of its four nations. In contrast, the UK is usually presented as a partnership into willingly and requiring the consent of its constituent nations. As a result, a case must be made for its continuation. https://www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/why-stay-together I know it takes some time for peer-review but did … Continue reading Academics from Mars think UK is ‘a partnership requiring the consent of its constituent nations’

Comparing England and Scotland is problematic on a number of points but especially because of the huge population difference (11 times) and the distorting effect of the differences in wealth and health between Scotland and the South including a mega-city. The North-west of England with its two major cities, Liverpool and Manchester and a population only around 40% higher, is much more comparable. As with Glasgow, these two cities experienced the devastating effects of de-industrialisation in the 70s and 80s. Despite the similarities, however, Glasgow and other deprived areas in Scotland such as Dundee and Lanarkshire, have long had and … Continue reading Why is NW England’s covid-19 death rate 2.5 times higher per capita than that of Scotland?