Ludo Thierry 7 key areas of public policy over the period of Tory (and coalition) government at Westminster (2010 to the present). NOTE: by focusing on period 2010 to 2019 some very impressive SNP Scottish Govt achievements are rather downplayed eg the dramatic improvement in Police numbers achieved during initial ‘minority’ SNP administration which has been subsequently sustained over the whole period): A tale of two governments: 7 key performance comparisons between the Scottish and Westminster Governments With a general election on the way, focusing on Brexit and independence, there will be a blizzard of claims about government records. Therefore, … Continue reading Two governments compared as election looms

From The importance of involving statisticians in the evolution of NHS performance measures, missed in my Christmas reading list, the above table jumped out at me only today, as I searched for evidence to use in the previous posts. Click to access NHS-Performance-Measures-281118-1.pdf Continue reading Longer A&E stays 10 times more common in Tory England and 24 times more common in Labour Wales

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50290033 Thanks to researcher, Legerwood, for alerting me to this. In yesterday’s big piece 11 charts on why the NHS matters in this election by Nick Triggle and Ben Butcher, the writers make an astonishing, beginner’s error in the use of statistics, with the effect of exaggerating NHS England’s A&E performance and reducing the gap with that of NHS Scotland. The error is simple. They mistakenly use the performance figures for ‘All’ A&E departments when they should only use those for ‘Type 1’ departments in England: Type 1 A&E department: a consultant-led 24-hour service with full resuscitation facilities and designated … Continue reading BBC UK make astonishing error in comparing A&E performance across UK to create FAKE news

Ludo Thierry Further good annual and quarterly figures on maintaining Police Service recruitment released today by the Chief Statistician. Link to news.gov.scot and snippets below: Compare these numbers with the 20,000 ‘missing’ police officers south of the border – mislaid since the tories came to office at Westminster. SNP Scottish Government and YES majority Scottish Parliament doing the Day Job thing in a way that Johnson and co. couldn’t even begin to dream of: https://news.gov.scot/news/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-scotland-30-september-2019 Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. The … Continue reading As thousands go missing in Borisania police officer numbers grow here

Last night we heard: ‘On November 5th last year there were 13 attacks on fire crews across Scotland.’ We heard nothing at all to put this in context. Any viewer, wide awake, might be wondering is that an increasing phenomenon? Do we need more fire fighters to cope? Are things worse or better here than in some neighbouring country? From Police Scotland, on last year’s incidents: Sunday 4th November 2018 saw 56 reported ASB incidents and 19 fireworks offences, compared to 157 and 146 respectively for Sunday 5th November 2017. This equates to a 64% reduction for antisocial behaviour and … Continue reading STV News fail to REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 87% reduction in firework-related crimes last year

In September 2019, 148 295 people attended compared to 140 364 in the previous year. That was a 5.6% increase in demand yet 89.3% were seen within the target time in 2019 compared with 90.9% in the previous year. The latter difference is of course not statistically significant. https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/Publications/2019-11-05/Summary/index.asp The figure for England is 77%. https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2019-20/ 12.3 is 15.6% of 77 so, using RSD rounding, we get 16%. Continue reading Dear Boris: Despite 5.6% increase in demand NHS Scotland A&E departments hold steady and were 16% better than NHS England in September

Only 2% of operations were cancelled (postponed?) in September 2019 due to lack of capacity or staffing, the same as in August and despite a 5.6% increase in demand from 26 241 to 27 704. This is a phenomenal result which Boris Johnson should hear of. Click to access 2019-11-05-Cancellations-Summary.pdf Continue reading Dear Boris: Astonishingly low level of operation ‘cancellations’ due to lack of staff and resources despite major increase in demand

From ISD, today: At the September 2019 census point, there were 1,497 people delayed. This is a decrease of 2% compared with the number of people delayed (1,529) at the census point in September 2018. Click to access 2019-11-05-DelayedDischarges-Summary.pdf Continue reading Dear Boris: Fewer delays in hospital discharges reducing bed-blocking

‘Scotland’s health system is to be congratulated for a multi-year effort that has produced some of the largest population-wide reductions in surgical deaths ever documented.’ As the Tories foolishly aim to fight for votes on the hospital wards and astonishingly think they can attack the SNP there, It’s worth re-posting this from April 2019: A World Health Organization safety checklist to encourage teamwork and communication during operations has been associated with a 37% reduction in the death rate after operations, with a notably dramatic fall since 2007/8. Dr Atul Gawande, who introduced the checklist and co-authored the above study, published in the British … Continue reading Dear Boris: NHS Scotland largest reductions in surgical deaths EVER documented!

The above image was taken by our Spaced Out Correspondent, Agent Scotonline, seconds before two police officers were vapourised by mysterious rays from this creepy UFO. Agent Scotonline has survived with only a red face from the incident. We knew this might happen when we were warned by the Defence Secretary in 2014:: Despite this warning Police Scotland have done nothing to prepare themselves: Michael Gove has been put forward as our most alien-looking leader to speak to them. Continue reading Watch the skies! Scotland under alien attack and helpless!