In the Guardian today: As many as one in three hospital beds in parts of England are occupied by patients who are well enough to be discharged, with a chronic lack of social care meaning many do not have suitable places to go. Guardian analysis of official data shows that on average 13,600 beds across NHS England are occupied every day with patients who doctors say are medically fit to go home or to a care home, equivalent to one in seven beds in acute hospitals in October. However, that rose to more than one in five at 35 of England’s 121 … Continue reading Health Secretary praised as bed blocking far less serious in NHS Scotland

From the Scottish Government in October 2022: Across the 14 years between 2007/08 and 2020/21, the annual average supply of affordable housing per head of population in Scotland has been 13.9 homes per 10,000 population, higher than England (9.7 homes per 10,000 population), Wales (8.0 homes per 10,000 population), and Northern Ireland (13.0 homes per 10,000 population – average across the years 2010/11 to 2020/21). The 9,757 affordable homes completed in Scotland in the latest financial year 2021/22 equates to a rate of 17.9 homes delivered per 10,000 population, the highest rate since 2007/08. https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-scotland-quarterly-update-new-housebuilding-affordable-housing-supply-published-04-october-2022/pages/7/ In the Guardian today: Forty … Continue reading Scotland surges ahead again in building affordable homes

In terms of the risk of dying in a hospital, Scotland’s hospitals are, year-after-year, reassuringly the same, across the country. Based on previous year’s mortality-rate a predicted rate is set. If there are the same number of deaths as anticipated the ratio is 1, the blue line. If there are significantly more or less than anticipated, warnings are triggered, the amber and red lines. The actual mortality rate is then plotted for each hospital on the graph, a ‘funnel’ plot or chart. The shape of the chart can confuse. The very small hospitals are to the extreme left where it … Continue reading The risk of dying in a hospital: The postcode lottery you won’t face in this already more equal Scotland

stewartb Arguably, there are some basic characteristics of the Tory opposition in Holyrood: (i) perhaps tactically, in the Scottish Parliament it chooses to offer little in terms of alternative policies/solutions, including the NHS. IMHO the Tories are not really working towards government in Scotland because their priority is for the powers of devolved government to be further circumvented or removed by Westminster. (ii) the Tories in Scotland have individuals, notably but not only Stephen Kerr MSP, whose prime role seems to be to denigrate and disrupt. (iii) the Tories in Scotland rely on the mainstream media, and especially the BBC, … Continue reading The characteristics of the Tory opposition in Holyrood

Kit Malthouse Minister of State (Minister for Crime and Policing) – February 2020 to July 2022 stewartb The populations in different parts of the UK may well have suffered differently in terms of long term drug misuse from the legacy effects of deindustrialisation and subsequent public health responses over decades. Scotland may well now be experiencing the relatively worse, tragic effects because the causes to an extent were ‘baked in’ some time ago. However, the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) data on drug deaths elsewhere in the UK clearly show that drug policies and support being implemented by … Continue reading English and Welsh drug users being sacrificed to a failed drug policy

STV and the Herald covered this story in September, but I seem to have missed it. BBC Scotland too, missed it. There were 285 suspected drug deaths recorded between January and March 2022, 27% (108) lower than the same calendar quarter of 2021 (January to March 2021: 393). The rolling 12-month suspected drugdeath total has declined for four consecutive quarters. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2022/06/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland-january-march-2022/documents/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland/govscot%3Adocument/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland.pdf Ironically, I’d been waiting for the Police Scotland figures after reporting on a fall in suspected drugs deaths in the previous quarter from January to March 2022 There were 277 suspected drug deaths during the period April to June … Continue reading Scottish drug deaths plummet again as Thatcher’s Children depart the scene

You want us to oversee hygiene in NHS England? A very powerful indicator of the effectiveness of a hospital, of a health board and, of course, of a health secretary, is the extent to which patients are protected from becoming more ill after admission due to a hospital-acquired infection (HAI). HAI Covid data is published weekly by Public Health Scotland but has been tricky to find for other parts of the UK In October 2022, however, the above graph popped up in Twitter, with this commentary: Hospital-Acquired Covid in England – 20th October update In the last 28 days, 11,234 … Continue reading Scottish Health Secretary and NHS Scotland praised for far lower level of hospital-acquired Covid infections

Several in social media have question my headline SNP Government cleared of any wrong-doing on ferry contract by Police Scotland yesterday morning. The headline attracted many more reads than I’m used to. Critics argued that dropping the case does not ‘clear’ the suspect. Well it clearly has done for other cases where an initial investigation found no or insufficient evidence upon which to proceed: A Tory police boss who was investigated by cops over an alleged historic sex offence has been cleared. Cleveland’s Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner has said he feels “vindicated” after the Independent Office for Police … Continue reading Yes, the police can ‘clear’ the Scottish Government and any other politicians of ‘wrong-doing’

Covid infection levels over the last 3 months tend be roughly the same in the 4 nations but the number of the more serious cases developing and requiring intensive care has been constantly and significantly lower in Scotland. In the most recent figures and on the majority of days in the last 3 months, Conservative-run England which, based on its larger population, should have around 10 times as many ICU cases (90) tends to have around 17 times as many (150). Labour-run Wales, which, based on its smaller population, should have around 60% has 130%. What might be causing these … Continue reading Scotland’s hospitals preventing large numbers of Covid cases requiring intensive care