Tag: health

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English Media say maternity care there is in a doom loop (no ”) but no matter how ‘our’ media try Scotland is not having England’s maternity crisis – It’s just a review

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In the Guardian today, the above with notably no speech marks around ‘doom loop’, and: The NHS Alliance has announced that up to 20 of the country’s 155 smaller, consultant-led maternity units, mostly in rural or coastal areas, might have to close, since their safety is in question. The problem – which will seem very pressing and obvious to anyone about to give birth, yet quite abstract and manageable to anyone who isn’t – is that those areas aren’t teeming with alternatives. There are women in Devon whose maternity hospital has been temporarily closed, whose next nearest hospital is 53 … Continue reading English Media say maternity care there is in a doom loop (no ”) but no matter how ‘our’ media try Scotland is not having England’s maternity crisis – It’s just a review

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Preparing for today’s lies about Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 3 – Why Scotland’s higher PERCENTAGE of care home deaths was entirely expected because we had fewer deaths OVERALL

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All the necessary data to explain the above is deep in the bowels of the 14 000 or so Talking-up Scotland archives. I could have dug it all up and posted an answer later today but then I thought, what do I keep Grok AI (I imagine a Raven-like familiar) for? I asked him: Compare the percentage of Covid deaths which were in care homes in England and Scotland from March 2020 to February 2022? He did and then I asked: Is this an entirely expected and not negative outcome given that England had overall a much….. before hitting <RETURN> … Continue reading Preparing for today’s lies about Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 3 – Why Scotland’s higher PERCENTAGE of care home deaths was entirely expected because we had fewer deaths OVERALL

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Preparing for today’s lies about Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 2 – In the murderous first phase of the pandemic, they were 21% lower than in England & Wales

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In the Guardian 19th July 2020, six months after Boris Johnson’s incompetence and callousness allowed the virus free access t the UK and just over three months since the SNP Government got devolved authority for the pandemic tactics, here is what happened to care home residents. In a piece broadly sympathetic to the First Minister and Scotland’s Covid strategy, the Guardian writers seemed to feel the need for ‘balance’ and to use anything they can find even if it’s wrong. Truth, fairness and accuracy are what readers need. You wouldn’t expect to have balance on a piece about the health … Continue reading Preparing for today’s lies about Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 2 – In the murderous first phase of the pandemic, they were 21% lower than in England & Wales

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Why does the Royal College of Emergency Medicine avoid comparisons with Scotland when they reveal England to be the ‘Capital of Deadly Long Waits?’

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In the Herald today: More than 30,000 NHS waits are still longer than a year despite a Scottish Government pledge to eradicate them by March. Last year, First Minister John Swinney set a target of March 2026 for no patient to wait longer than a year for their treatment. Important I’m sure but: Why A&E should take priority if resources force a choice Mortality evidence is clearer and more immediate for A&E delays. Excess deaths in the low tens of thousands annually are estimated from long emergency waits; equivalent quantified mortality impact is not shown for the current scale of … Continue reading Why does the Royal College of Emergency Medicine avoid comparisons with Scotland when they reveal England to be the ‘Capital of Deadly Long Waits?’

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Scottish Government scheme slashes drug-related hospital stays to reduce load and stem drug deaths

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From National Mission on Drugs: annual report 2025 to 2026, published today and to zero media attention: On 20 January 2021, the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made a statement to Parliament which set out a National Mission to reduce drug deaths and improve lives through a range of improvements to treatment, recovery and other support services. This fifth and final National Mission annual report sets out the progress made from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 against the National Mission Plan. Annual analytical reports monitoring the progress of the National Mission are published separately. https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-mission-drugs-annual-report-2025-2026/pages/2/ This is an … Continue reading Scottish Government scheme slashes drug-related hospital stays to reduce load and stem drug deaths

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NHS Scotland treating 20% more in 12 weeks than NHS England as think-tank predicts a crisis there by the next election

johnrobertson834

Typically dishonest, gutter-level journalism from the Herald today. Moving the formal maximum target from an unmet 12 weeks to a 26-week aim by 2031 is a relaxation of ambition relative to the old legal standard, but it does not mean the plan is to increase waits to twice what people experience today. For a large number of current long-waiters it would still represent an improvement if achieved. Like many health service targets, our aging, less active yet more expectant population, living in a world of de-regulated food production and made addicts to hyper-processed non-food by global corporations, cannot be met. … Continue reading NHS Scotland treating 20% more in 12 weeks than NHS England as think-tank predicts a crisis there by the next election

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Fighting obesity with drugs – BBC Scotland’s one-sided, unbalanced reporting fails to tell you of a more sustainable, equitable, and cost-effective population-level approach and the really ‘leading’ Scottish doctor who knows all about it

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effective since 2023. BBC Scotland‘s insert in BBC Breakfast this morning tell us that the weight loss drug ‘jabs’ (sic) Wegovy and Mounjaro are only being prescribed free, on the NHS, for ‘fewer than 800′ Scots, that at least 300 000 are accessing them privately, that this discriminates against the obese and that they have been approved as ‘safe and cost effective.‘ In some ways strangely, given their close ties, the BBC Scotland writers have forgotten this from the Herald in May 2025: A Scottish GP has warned about society’s potential reliance on weight loss drugs as he calls for … Continue reading Fighting obesity with drugs – BBC Scotland’s one-sided, unbalanced reporting fails to tell you of a more sustainable, equitable, and cost-effective population-level approach and the really ‘leading’ Scottish doctor who knows all about it

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As twice as many wait more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E, Jackie Baillie rides the Scotsman off its readership cliff again

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Scottish Labour’s unhealthy spokesperson seem to be a columnist at the Unhealthy Scotsman these days. Today, further riding the Scotsman off its readership cliff, she has: The shocking figures that reveal how bad Scotland’s A&E crisis has got under SNP – Jackie Baillie Emergency departments in two flagship hospitals can sometimes be forced to deal with more than double or triple the number of patients they are designed to treat And then this sickly rib-tickler Candour is so important in politics. Voters deserve to hear the truth from those in power and to know they understand their duty to get … Continue reading As twice as many wait more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E, Jackie Baillie rides the Scotsman off its readership cliff again

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As NHS England’s Fonagy review into mental health support reveals a ‘dire lack of support’ how NHS Scotland hit 90% or more target for 8th time in a row

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In the Guardian today, we hear of  ‘an inquiry into England’s ever-extending waiting lists for the diagnosis of mental illness and neurodevelopmental conditions, and the dire lack of support for people who experience one or both of them.’ BBC Scotland relies on another RCEM Scotland claim that A&E doctors are ‘completely terrified‘ in Scotland yet not so in England where the more than 12 hour waits strongly associated with excess death are twice as comon. This is, of course, is fully swept under the Editor’s carpet: From Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times Quarter ending June 2026 … Continue reading As NHS England’s Fonagy review into mental health support reveals a ‘dire lack of support’ how NHS Scotland hit 90% or more target for 8th time in a row

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Why does the Royal College of Emergency Medicine avoid comparisons with Scotland when they reveal England to be the ‘Capital of Deadly Long Waits?’

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By stewartb When reading across the press statements that the RCEM makes regularly on the waiting times performances of the NHS in England, the north of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, it is rare to find it refer directly to between nation comparisons. In particular, the longstanding better performance of NHS Scotland tends not to be acknowledged although clearly evident in time series graphs tucked away in the RCEM’s website. Rare but not never! One such occurrence in a recent RCEM press statement on NHS Scotland (see below) strikes me as rather ‘odd’ if not perverse! For context, from the RCEM … Continue reading Why does the Royal College of Emergency Medicine avoid comparisons with Scotland when they reveal England to be the ‘Capital of Deadly Long Waits?’