Here’s an uncomfortable thought. In August 2019, 152 514 people attended A&E in Scotland. In August 2022, it was 135 700, 11% fewer. In August 2019, 90.6% were seen within 4 hours. In August 2022, only 69.6% were seen in that time. A negative correlation? Fewer admissions but longer waiting times? What the…is going on here. I can think of four explanations quickly. There are fewer staff employed in A&E today than there were three years ago. A&E staff are less efficient now than they were then. The patients are worse than they used to be. The figures are due … Continue reading If A&E attendance is still lower why are waiting times getting longer?

A union rep, once more described as a ‘leading physician’ is platformed by BBC Scotland to inaccurately and irresponsibly exaggerate the effects of current pressures on A&E: Several of Scotland’s A&E departments want emergency measures brought in because of concerns about patient safety, a leading clinician has said. Dr John Paul Loughrey, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said patients were being kept in “inhumane” conditions due to high occupancy. On Sunday, RCEM president Dr Adrian Boyle said between 300 and 500 people were dying every week across the UK as a result of delays to emergency care – this appeared … Continue reading Fake News on Scotland’s hospital deaths will cause deaths

At the end of the BBC Scotland insert in BBC Breakfast, this morning: New figures suggest the gender pay gap between men and women is lower (sic) in Scotland than in the UK overall. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the gasp was 12.2% last year compared with almost 15% UK-wide. However, the figures also reveal the gap here widening slightly. They didn’t, of course tell us about the more significant full-time gender pay gaps – 3.7% in Scotland, 8.3% in the UK overall, 124% higher! https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/gender-pay-gap-in-scotland-is-lower-than-rest-of-uk-latest-ons-figures-show-3971711 As for the gap being ‘lower‘, I’ve often wondered about … Continue reading UK gender pay gap massive 124% wider than in Scotland

I’m grateful to my Researcher, Bernadette Robertson, for alerting me to this with a shout of: ‘Hey! BBC Wales is on our beach!‘ From BBC Wales as an insert in BBC 24, today around 4:30pm: But here on the West coast of Scotland, locals and environmental officials say that benefits are already being felt on beaches like this [Ayr South] one because of the work they’re doing with farmers on the River Ayr….Scotland’s environmental regulator spends £900 000 a year on a dedicated team of 12 inspectors and support staff just checking water pollution from farms. In Wales? No fully-funded … Continue reading ‘Have you done what the Scots are doing?’ BBC Wales praises Scotland’s river quality enforcement

We’ve been here before with Tom Devine confusedly defending Anas Sarwar’s claim that Scotland cannot be seen as a colony of the British (English) Empire because a few elite Scots were enthusiastic participants in the the imperial project. Now we have David Leask asking the above question. The answer is a simple ‘yes’ because the vast majority of Scots like the vast majority of the English, for that matter, were the very first victims of the colonising of these islands, by a Norman warrior elite, starting in 1066 and tidying up in the last corners by 1745. It’s been the … Continue reading Most Scots could never be colonisers and were among the first to be colonised

It’s quite a suggestion coming today from the UK Convenor of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Surely, this time, the Health Secretary for England, Steve….eh…..Barclay…I think, must resign? Nope, he gets no mention. What’s happening in Daily Express Scotland? She gets everywhere, that woman! OK so 50 not dying every week in Scotland then? How does the Scottish Daily Express generally cover health matters? Ah, they certainly know his name and what he can be accused of – anything and everything? Continue reading 500 deaths a week not related to English Health Secretary Steve…Thingummy

A health report politicised in the Times (Scotland) with an ‘SNP policy vacuum’, ‘SNP ministers’, ‘SNP ministers’, again, and ‘SNP free-prescription policy. In the big UK Times, far greater drama as A&E delays apparently kill 500 every week, but there’s no mention of the party of government, the Conservatives, just that ‘ministers’ hope that public support for the unions will ‘erode.’ Imagine if the SNP were revealed to hold the same hope in Scotland. Nothing more clearly illustrates the full force of bias against the SNP and the wider movement for independence than this naked contrast in the coverage of … Continue reading A sign of the Times in the UK and in Scotland

Back in 2019, Scottish Lib Dem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, proudly reported saving his daughter’s life with a series of back-slaps to clear a blockage, so he knows a bit about DYI medicine or self-medicating, and self-promotion too. Today, he’s in the Scotsman saying: …treating themselves. Cole-Hamilton was born in Hertfordshire on the Northern edge of Greater London. The big town there is Watford. Also today, in the Watford Observer: Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said “This is a national scandal. Face-to-face GP appointments have become almost extinct in some areas of the country,” he said. “We now have the … Continue reading Lib Dem Leader confuses GP crisis in Hertfordshire with none in Scotland

The North Briton, above, typically using UK data to stir up anxiety in Scotland There were 3,494 GP Whole Time Equivalents (WTE) in Scotland in 2022. The equivalent figure for NHS England was 27,392. Per head of population, all things being equal with England you might have expected 2 739 GPs in Scotland (1 tenth) but there were 3 494, 27.5% more. Try searching for ‘Scotland self-medicating‘. You’ll find one report. Yes, you guessed, the same Scotsman one. What has Alex Cole-Hamilton, leader of Scotland’s teeny, shrinking 5th column, to say? ‘GP appointments have become almost extinct.’ That’ll be in … Continue reading No reports of mass self-medicating with 27% more GPs

From Alba on 30 December 2022: In a poll carried out on behalf of the party by Panelbase, only 45% of those responding after don’t knows were excluded said they wanted to keep King Charles as Scotland’s Head of State. In contrast 55% say they want to see an independent Scotland become a republic with an elected Head of State. https://www.albaparty.org/majority_of_scots_back_plan_for_independent_scottish_republic Alba have chosen to ignore the don’t knows and not tell us how many there were, because they want to hammer home the notion of a majority for dumping the huffy one. It’s a legitimate ploy but, maybe in … Continue reading It’s almost certainly far worse for Charles III in Scotland