Reporting Scotland’s health correspondent, Lisa Summers, is an old hand at turn anecdotal comments into to an imagined crisis affecting NHS Scotland more widely and, by implication, suggesting that the SNP Scottish Government is not managing it well. There is clear evidence that fake news can put sick people off attending health services and thus risking their lives: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52337951 https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/06/fake-news-putting-50000-lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-women-at-risk-of-cancer/ Headlining this story comes against a background of ignoring Scotland exceeding the rest of the UK in vaccinations and A&E waiting times. It comes against the, again ignored, background of much lower infection and death rates than England and Northern … Continue reading None of these medics claim that hospitals, plural, are under more pressure than ever. That headline is fake news risking lives for a story

According to Public Health Scotland’s most recent report, in the week-ending 18th July, 13 758 cases of Covid were acquired in the community and 18 were picked up in hospital wards. The Scottish Conservatives health spokesperson, Miles Briggs, is expected to demand an apology from the Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf. BBC Scotland’s health correspondent, Lisa Smithers, has been too tired to report these data since November 2020: NHS England have solved their problems with such infections by just not publishing any data, but in April 2021, when the level of hospital onset Covid infection in Scotland had fallen to nearly … Continue reading Hospital-acquired Covid infections fall to 0.1%

From SNP Media: The number of students from Europe who have been accepted on to a university course in Scotland has more than halved compared to last year. According to UCAS, the percentage of students living in Europe who have applied to study at universities in Scotland has dropped by 56% compared to 2020. The figures have been described as ‘deeply concerning’ by the President of the National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland who blames ‘astronomical fees’ EU students now have to pay as a result of Brexit. Commenting, SNP MSP Clare Adamson said: “Yet again we see the opportunities of … Continue reading Number of EU students in Scotland halved!

Scotland’s infection level is now one of the lowest in Europe, around half that in England, after contradictory government messaging there, and lower than that in the two nations with the advantage of being islands not connected to England. The death rate which, of course, lags behind infections, is now lower in Scotland than in most European countries and significantly lower than in England where care home vaccinations have been neglected. Only in Scotland is the R number range less than 1 and thus a confident indicator that the virus is in retreat. The map of regional infection levels is … Continue reading Covid: SNP Government getting results

Ed: Responsibility for headline and photo choice is mine By Alasdair Galloway Lindsay Paterson again …. He is quoted in the Herald this morning as claiming re the increased proportion of A grades, “The large rise in A grades was seen across the board – rich and poor, male and female, rural and urban, all ethnic groups.” This he claims “suggests that the explanation does not lie in teachers’ marking, but rather in the instructions about marking that they received from the SQA. Massive grade inflation in such a short period of time cannot be due to better teachers or … Continue reading SHOCK: Prof Lindsay Paterson revealed as ‘unfair and inaccurate’ on A grades

Today, former teacher Lin Anderson beats me to it but says pretty much what I would have said. Others quickly shared her disgust: Essex girl, Brambles, is in the same mould (mold) as many others in BBC Scotland. When I saw this trawling for dirt, other examples of their standard approach came to mind. In August 2020, we saw this: At the time, I wrote: Stalker tweeted the above sneaky wee call for evidence, three weeks ago, then all went quiet. Serves her right, I thought, but no, she got two, including one well-known (Hughes) to Labour’s Monica Lennon, through … Continue reading BBC Radio Scotland: The enemy trawling within

By stewartb It is regrettable that mainstream media coverage nowadays in Scotland too often only aggregates and amplifies the negatives about our public services. And even more insidious is the failure to provide context or perspective: it is reasonable to expect better from BBC Scotland as a public service broadcaster but the failure there is egregious. (Regular visitors to this site have plenty evidence of this now and will have a view as to why this has come about!) It is with this background that a recent (April 2021) report from the Institute for Government (IfG) is noteworthy. Covering the … Continue reading Comparing public services across the UK – providing health and social care context

In June 2021, NHS Wales treated only 70.6% of patients within 4 hours*. NHS England saw 73.2%. In the same period, NHS Scotland treated 83.6%. These are worrying figures fore the people of Wales and yet BBC Wales makes no suggestion of any failure by health boards or by the Welsh Government in their report today: A&E queues mean Wales’ ambulances ‘can’t take 999 calls’ Rather, they interview paramedics. One of whom says: We’ve had all types of calls, from sunburn, fish-hooks in feet, cramp in legs, through to much more serious calls,” Ceri said. I’d like people to think … Continue reading How BBC Wales hides a political crisis in emergency services by blaming the patients

From BBC Wales this morning: As lockdown restrictions have eased ambulance staff are having the busiest summer of their lives. Some have said they were “broken” by spending so much time queuing outside A&Es unable to respond to new calls. According to them, it has been the busiest period in their careers. BBC Wales’ health correspondent Owain Clarke has been given special access to crews, call managers and senior paramedics. The health secretary/minister for Wales is not asked to explain this. They’re certainly not accused of any failure by opposition parties or asked to resign. They’re not mentioned at all. … Continue reading Nothing proves BBC Scotland’s bias more clearly than BBC Wales

After a long period with the second lowest level of infection in the UK after Wales, Scotland now has the lowest level. Scotland’s media show no interest in this. It was a different and clearly important story when we had the highest level: Continue reading Scotland falls below Wales to lowest infection rate in UK