The move from institutionalised to community-based care is at the heart of Scotland’s strategy for patients with psychiatric, addiction of learning disability conditions. The number of patients treated as inpatients has fallen by 15% in the last 5 years. There will of course always be some patients who cannot be treated in the community. This statement from the Royal College of Nursing sums up the need for this trend and one major reason for its success in Scotland, staff engagement: Scotland’s mental health services, and related policy and legislation, have shifted over recent decades from a focus on institutional care … Continue reading Major success in Scottish Government’s approach to healthcare integration recognised by Royal College

Reporting Scotland have been fed another of the single cases they love to present as some kind of wider problem in NHS Scotland. Today we read of one doctor prepared to pay for her two sons to get the HPV jab which protects against throat cancer. Readers will remember that RSD have a poor record of reporting on vaccines when there is actual hard evidence that NHS Scotland’s performance is high and especially if it’s better than for NHS England. As the immunisation level against the deadly measles virus plummets in England yet stays above target in Scotland BBC UK … Continue reading Reporting Scotland Down on a vaccine

There’s been some anxiety expressed about an apparent recent dip in support for the SNP shown in the last 4 sub-polls. Opinium/Observer had them at 38% for 3-4 October. YouGov/Times had them at 35% for 30 September to 1 October. YouGov/Sunday Times had them at 38% for 24-25 September. Opinium/Observer had them at 37% for 25-27 September. At first sight it seems like evidence of a fairly real fall from solid >40% figures for most of this year. However, unusually, Opinium did not tell us what the results would be with the don’t knows removed but we can easily produce … Continue reading SNP support NOT really a falling trend in recent polls

From Insider yesterday: The Johan Sverdrup project in the Norwegian section of the North Sea is a joint partnership between Equinor and Lundin Norway , Petoro , Aker BP and Total . The field is thought to hold expected recoverable reserves of 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent and could produce up to 660,000 barrels of oil per day at peak. Although a Norwegian project, many Scottish oil and gas services firms will also benefit from contracts to work on it. https://www.insider.co.uk/news/boost-north-sea-sector-huge-20528115 Earlier reports of the wider demand for Scottish expertise: Scotland’s North Sea expertise earning globally In Energy Voice June 2018: ‘The chief executive of Ghana’s Petroleum Commission has said Aberdeen will play … Continue reading Scots firms to benefit from 2.7 billion Norwegian oil field

But I guess the bottom line is that the answer is ‘yes’ without the kind of mental health prevention, protection and treatment that we all need in our lives, ‘yes people will be put at risk.’ The Royal College of a Psychiatrists say that the 10% vacancy rate is putting patients at risk. No hard evidence is offered but Reporting Scotland Down don’t need that kind of thing nor do they need any contextual information. It’s not as if they have editorial guidelines, a royal charter or describe themselves as a public service provider, is it? They just wheeled Dr … Continue reading Is Reporting Scotland Down exploiting a turf war between psychiatry and psychology to scare the vulnerable?

I’ve complained today about the choice of image, bottom left, made by BBC Scotland to illustrate vacancies in NHS Scotland. The contrast with the only other reports I could find on the story, BBC UK, the Herald and the Guardian, is stark. The complaint using urls, as images cannot be submitted, is below. I’ll let you know how they respond. They have previous in this kind of approach: They have an agenda but then you know all about that. Continue reading BBC Scotland Complaint: Exploitative and tasteless imagery with an agenda

It’s the same thing. There is a 10% vacancy rate for psychiatrists but the consequences for Scots are in the form of a crisis affecting children. In England they seem to be only a threat to improvement of the system. The Scottish Government is difficult to attack directly so, subconsciously, editors are drawn to public service events which they can be implicated in. It’s a long-running and wider practice: The BBC proxy war on the SNP using NHS Scotland May 22, 2019 PDF version of Powerpoint presentation I did for the fine activists of Yes East Ayrshire last night: The BBC … Continue reading NHS staff shortage in Scotland threatens YOUR child but in England only threatens an abstract idea

10% vacancies is a bit high but psychiatrists are only one group within a wider service. Here are some other stories not reported: NHS Psychology staffing soars nearly 40% under SNP Staffing across all three professional groups in Psychology Services continues to climb steadily to meet the ever-increasing demand. Click to access 2019-03-05-Psychology-Workforce-Summary.pdf Psychology waiting times hold constant and close to target despite increased demand Remember, targets in many other parts of the developed world are recognised to be aspirational and there is no media frenzy when they are consistently not ‘hit.’ Click to access 2019-03-05-WT-PsychTherapies-Summary.pdf 88% of elderly patients begin psychological … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s sickening proxy war against the SNP using the vulnerable as cannon fodder

Based on a Freedom of Information request, those sneaky wee LibDems have fed BBC Scotland with these shocking facts: Statistics obtained via a Freedom of Information request by the Scottish Liberal Democrats showed that one patient had to wait 243 weeks for outpatient oral and maxillofacial surgery in the NHS Grampian area. The figures also showed a 131-week wait a patient in NHS Tayside endured for unspecified outpatient work. Another NHS Grampian patient was forced to wait 126 weeks for dental surgery. Note the not-so-objective professional language from our state broadcaster – had to, endured, was forced to? So that’s … Continue reading Lib Dems find just 3 out of 1.75 million patients sick to back teeth and BBC helps them make it into a crisis

Just last week, before the Edinburgh march, I bemoaned this piece in the Scotsman: Reacting quickly, I condemned it as clearly wrong, a scare story, but then realised I didn’t actually have the evidence. A quick search and I found this: ‘It turns out that social science has a lot to say about which protests are likely to be effective. My research shows that social movements can indeed create long-lasting political change.’ (Mazumder, Harvard, 2017) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/27/yes-marches-can-really-matter-these-three-factors-make-the-difference/ Mazumder, a PhD student at Harvard, found that peaceful, articulate and organised protests, as in the AUOB marches, can ‘create long-lasting political change.’ Just one PhD student … Continue reading Harvard University research tells us that All Under One Banner’s marches will succeed and BBC notScotland shared it