In October 2019, only 1.7% of operations were cancelled due to a lack of capacity in terms of operating theatres or staff, down from 2% in September. For any system like NHS Scotland to have 0 cancellations due to capacity, would require facilities and staffing beyond that which could be reasonably justified and, often, theatres lying empty and staff idle. Click to access 2019-12-03-Cancellations-Summary.pdf Continue reading Astonishing NHS Scotland performance as cancelled operations due to capacity approach zero

In October 2019, 88% of the 142 587 patients attending Scottish A&E departments were seen within 4 hours. https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/Publications/2019-12-03/Summary/index.asp In sharp contrast only 74.5% of the 908 168 attending English Type1 A&E departments were seen within 5 hours. https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2019-20/ That’s more than 200 000 in England waiting longer than they should, in one month, while only 2 282 did in Scotland. Attend an English A&E and you would have been nearly TEN TIMES as likely per capita to have to wait more than 4 hours. Continue reading In October NHS Scotland A&E massive 18% faster than NHS England and TEN TIMES less likely to make you wait more than 4 hours!

In Scotland: Winter pressures across NHS Scotland will be tackled through an investment of £10 million. This will help reduce hospital attendances, where possible, by managing care closer to home for those with long-term conditions and minor injuries, with a focus on better use of community pharmacies and more support to direct people to the best service for their needs. The funding, which has been allocated to health boards, is in addition to the £6.3 million previously allocated for unscheduled care. It matches last winter’s investment and will help ensure there are appropriate levels of staffing in place across the … Continue reading The buffoon who would take control of NHS Scotland allows no winter funding for NHS England and tempts the perfect storm

The Guardian article today does not, of course, present any Scottish breakdown but the Shelter research study from 2018 does: Click to access The_housing_crisis_generation_-_Homeless_children_in_Britain.pdf That more than 9 000 children were in B&B or hostels in England is shocking. The rate in Labour Wales, with half the population is also, pro rata, 5 times higher than in Scotland. The table above, also reveals that the total number of homeless children in Scotland is only slightly over half that, per capita, of England. All things being equal, at 11 times the population the English figure should be around 70 000 but … Continue reading Keeping homeless children in B&B or hostels is 95 times more common in Tory England than in Scotland

I’m not going to tempt fate and say we won’t see anything like the London Bridge attack here. I’m just going to present some information which I first wrote two years ago after the Manchester attack and which I think we should all be aware of. Before, I do that, I know we have lots of racists and Islamophobes in Scotland. I know there was an attack on Glasgow Airport in 2007. That was 12 years ago, it’s worth remembering. I know two young Scots went to join ISIS. It was only 2 though out of 600 Britons. I know … Continue reading Scotland and terror: some cautious thoughts

Perhaps fearing an SNP surge in his Edinburgh Western constituency, Alexander Geoffrey “Alex” Cole-Hamilton asked last Thursday: ‘[F]or what reason A-level entry requirements for students domiciled in Scotland applying for a general engineering degree at the University of Strathclyde are reportedly higher than that for students applying with A-levels from other parts of the UK?’ And ‘[F]or what reason only 25% of Scottish applicants were accepted on to the General Engineering undergraduate degree course in the academic year 2018-19, while 91% of applicants from England, Wales and Northern Ireland were accepted on to the same course?’ Click to access WA20191128.pdf … Continue reading Is Alex Cole-Hamilton’s astonishing anti-British outburst at Holyrood a desperate attempt to save his ass?

From the Scottish Government today and being covered, if not exactly headlined, by Reporting Scotland: Rise in number of people training to be GPs. Latest recruitment figures show that 92% of all medical training posts advertised in Scotland in 2019 are filled – the highest level for five years. Data published by NHS Education for Scotland shows that clinical radiology and medical oncology have 100% fill rates, both of which will support the Waiting Times Improvement Plan. They are two of 37 medical specialties in which every place is taken – last year that figure was 29. The number of … Continue reading 92% of all medical training posts advertised in Scotland in 2019 are filled

There’s a headline that could be easily and usefully shortened: ‘Sarwar rotten to the core after exploiting hospital death’ Remember this? The SNP government soon gave the Scots what many of them craved: a return to old Labour policies, with the removal of prescription charges, the scrapping of tuition fees for university students, a freeze on council tax and the abolition of tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges. These decisive interventions contrasted with the mediocrity of the Scottish Parliament’s previous executives, led by Labour in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. At last, it seemed, the real potential of … Continue reading I think we all know where the rot is! ‘A cohort of shifty election agents, superannuated full-time trade union officials and clapped-out local councillors’

BBC Wales have clearly got an early look at the Pisa results due on Tuesday and they’re bad, very bad: “It’s not just that Wales has underperformed, it’s seen its performance decline”. That’s the stark assessment of Andreas Schleicher, head of education and skills at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Mr Schleicher spoke to BBC Wales ahead of the publication of the latest set of Pisa results, due on Tuesday. Pisa tests are taken by 15-year-olds in dozens of countries and economies across the world, and Wales has a poor record. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-50592611 Presumably BBC Scotland haven’t managed to get … Continue reading BBC Scotland now drooling with anticipation as the useless Pisa results on education loom

Fed by some Scottish Tory and regurgitated undigested by the Times, the facts are ignored. e were able to report on real progress in narrowing the gap in Scotland’s schools, in February 2019: ‘94.4% of pupils had a ’positive destination’ including work, training or further study within three months of leaving school last year, official statistics show. The figures also reveal that the gap between those from the most and least deprived communities achieving a positive destination has halved since 2009/10, with an increase in positive destinations for school leavers, from both backgrounds. Over the same period there have been increases at … Continue reading ‘Fresh analysis by the Scottish Conservatives’ of the attainment gap data is predictably WRONG