By Professor John Robertson In the Guardian today: Up to 100,000 patients in England face having their NHS care cancelled days before the general election after junior doctors announced a fresh wave of strike action, with Rishi Sunak saying it appeared to be politically motivated. Health leaders expressed alarm, warning the five-day strike would jeopardise efforts to tackle the record waiting list and “hit patients hard”. That means around 10 000 appointments have been saved from cancellation in Scotland. Why? Junior doctors have never withdrawn their labour in Scotland. Why is that? Junior doctors in Scotland have accepted a pay offer that includes a commitment … Continue reading 10 000 NHS care appointments saved in days before election by Matheson’s efforts

This site costs nothing to run so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ Above, the shocking picture of 52 out of the last 365 when doctors were on strike in England. There were no days lost to action in Scotland. According to the Guardian on 10 January, junior doctor strikes caused around 1.3 million appointments to be cancelled. Had there been comparable action in Scotland, around 130 000 appointments would have been lost. According to the Telegraph on 2 January, there were nearly 53 000 excess deaths in 2023 ‘amid’ the strikes across the UK so, had there been strikes … Continue reading 52 days of doctors strikes averted, more than 100 000 appointments and 5 000 lives saved by Humza Yousaf but his removal is what Labour desire most

This is all-too-familiar to us here. I’ve reported on NHS England re-starting the clock after A&E arrivals have been admitted to a department, to improve published statistics; on NHS Wales reducing targets from 95% for cancer waiting times, to 70%, to make things look less bad; on Public Health England not counting care home deaths to make their Covid death rate seem comparable to those in Scotland; on BBC UK using the ‘All’ A&E waiting time figures to compare with our ‘ED’ only performance to make theirs seem bearable and on English hospitals ‘coping’ with third world hospital-acquired Covid infection … Continue reading NHS England told to treat the less sick BEFORE those ‘at death’s door’ to meet Tory ‘political’ targets