Tag: health

5 Comments

Scotland’s ambulances between 2 and 3 tines faster thousands of times but Daily Record finds another case to to deflect you with

johnrobertson834

The Daily Record today, above: On 26 June 2026: There are some minor problems in comparing the data for England and Scotland but you can be sure that were they to favour the former, they’d be widely reported. Here’s why they’re not: In January 2024, BBC UK made direct comparison possible: Via the BBC’s How long do patients wait for an ambulance? app, we can confirm that the average waiting time for a Scottish ambulance was 8 min and 46 secs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59549800 Also, from BBC UK on 14 December 2023: Average response times of more than 38 minutes for category two emergency calls such as … Continue reading Scotland’s ambulances between 2 and 3 tines faster thousands of times but Daily Record finds another case to to deflect you with

Leave a comment

Is this the first credible case of spiking by needle injection?

johnrobertson834

Headlining BBC Scotland today, the above and: At the hospital, blood tests revealed she had been injected with gamma-hydroxybutyrate, better known as GHB, as well as an anti-depressant drug. GHB is a powerful sedative that causes extreme sleepiness and loss of inhibitions – and it erases the memory of what has happened under its influence. It is notorious as a date rape drug. Whilst the GHB would eventually work its way out of her system, doctors were worried about the potential for blood infections from the needle. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyv0zjg2623o The blood test is key and may suggest a shocking development because … Continue reading Is this the first credible case of spiking by needle injection?

2 Comments

How Scotland’s disability benefits system has been kinder and crucially remains affordable but is not apparently worthy of proper media coverage

johnrobertson834

In the midst of this damning finding, hot on the heels of England’s maternity unit horrors report, BBC Scotland have not managed to find something to suggest things are the same up here. They have done so, in the recent past with individual tales of over-complex and delayed processing of claims. Here’s why it’s difficult for them: What is the most important recent historical fact in disability payments in the UK? This: A leading disability rights charity has described new suicide statistics as the “tragic face of systemic inequality”. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested disabled people had the highest rate … Continue reading How Scotland’s disability benefits system has been kinder and crucially remains affordable but is not apparently worthy of proper media coverage

6 Comments

What on earth is this rubbish doing in the National implying Scotland’s maternity services need an Ockenden Inquiry?

johnrobertson834

The above is outrageous. There is no evidence presented by the writer to suggest she is in any position to predict what the outcome of the Scottish Government’s independent review of maternity services in Scotland will be. How dare she and they claim to know without waiting to hear the results? She opens with: Over the past few years, Britain has commissioned report after report into failures in maternity care. Shrewsbury and Telford. East Kent. Morecambe Bay. Nottingham. Most recently, the national investigation led by Baroness Valerie Amos. https://www.thenational.scot/comment/26261264.maternity-services-need-culture-change/ There is no British NHS to commission a report into maternity … Continue reading What on earth is this rubbish doing in the National implying Scotland’s maternity services need an Ockenden Inquiry?

1 Comment

Students in England ‘mis-sold’ loans as Nurse students there owe £77k and those in Scotland get a £10k bursary – what effect might that have on training numbers?

johnrobertson834

BBC UK today has: Comparing student loan repayments to phone contracts or cinema tickets “amounted to mis-selling” by government, a group of MPs has said. In a new report, the Treasury Committee also said students were not told clearly enough loan terms could change retrospectively, and called for a U-turn on the decision to freeze the income threshold at which some graduates start repaying their loans. The student loan saga has run for years in England but rarely surfaces in Scotland. Here’s why: Let’s take the situation in nurse education. The Guardian in January 2026 had: Helen Lambert borrowed £57,000 … Continue reading Students in England ‘mis-sold’ loans as Nurse students there owe £77k and those in Scotland get a £10k bursary – what effect might that have on training numbers?

Leave a comment

NHS Scotland cancer treatment service now performing better than before pandemic and ahead of NHS England

johnrobertson834

STV giving the 6th biggest, ie teeny, party, the Lib Dems, a platform for another of their attempts to mislead. No health service anywhere, meets waiting time targets like those the NHS across the UK imposes on itself – 95% on time. Anywhere I’ve read more on targets, in Europe and in North America or in Australia and New Zealand, I find the targets seen as aspirational and failure to hit them of little concern to media or opposition politicians. Here’s what the Lib Dems and STV are missing: NHS Scotland cancer treatment facing massive increase in referrals since pandemic … Continue reading NHS Scotland cancer treatment service now performing better than before pandemic and ahead of NHS England

1 Comment

How have we known for at least a decade that Scotland’s maternity services were not troubled like those in NHS England? More than three times per head, the cost of settling negligence lawsuits in NHS England

johnrobertson834

In the Guardian 19 February 2026, the above and: The NHS will have to spend more money settling lawsuits involving negligence during childbirth after a supreme court ruling that lawyers said puts right a “historic injustice”. The court ruled on Wednesday that children in England who suffer catastrophic injuries while they are being born can claim damages for future earnings they would otherwise have had. The ruling on “lost years damages” means that children whose life expectancy is shortened can recover compensation for being unable to work. It comes amid mounting concern at the rising cost of medical negligence to the NHS in England – its liabilities have … Continue reading How have we known for at least a decade that Scotland’s maternity services were not troubled like those in NHS England? More than three times per head, the cost of settling negligence lawsuits in NHS England

3 Comments

Dare to be different on smart phones, Scotland – since they were first introduced – teenage sex, pregnancy rates, crime, violence, alcohol and drugs all down!

johnrobertson834

21 years ago I read the above book by Steven Johnson so it was with delight that I received an email today from ‘scunhur’ making the case for smart phones making you smart, By ‘scunhur’: Imagine these Scottish news headlines: It’s all true (well…see 6.): The main point about each of 1-5 above is that the reduction in harmful behaviour started just as teenagers adopted smartphones from 2005 onwards, culminating in the introduction of the first iPhone in mid (USA) to late (Europe) 2007. There are numerous online references to this phenomenon, all being ignored by those who wish to … Continue reading Dare to be different on smart phones, Scotland – since they were first introduced – teenage sex, pregnancy rates, crime, violence, alcohol and drugs all down!

2 Comments

NHS Scotland’s greater spending, some independence, better staffing and care integration will offset some of the 20 000 avoidable deaths Starmer offers us in his US deal

johnrobertson834

In the Guardian today: The NHS will have to divert £45bn from essential services to pay for new medicines under the terms of the UK-US trade deal agreed last December, leading to more than 200,000 avoidable deaths [229 000] of patients, analysis has found. Ministers have defended the deal as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs, and giving patients in England access to potentially life-extending drugs that would otherwise be denied. But they have been accused of caving in to US demands to spend billions of pounds a year extra on drugs supplied to the NHS … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s greater spending, some independence, better staffing and care integration will offset some of the 20 000 avoidable deaths Starmer offers us in his US deal

4 Comments

NHS Scotland to be hammered for hundreds of millions in US drug deal Scotland had no say in

johnrobertson834

In the Guardian today something we, well stewartb, warned was coming. The NHS across the UK will have to divert £45bn from essential services to pay for the trade ‘deal’ the UK Labour Government has just done with big pharma in the US. Scotland’s share, unavoidably as the deal is done by the UK Government alone, will cost NHS Scotland around 8% of that or £360 million. In April 2026, stewartb, warned this was coming and NHS Scotland would just have to meet the cost from its finite budget unless the UK Government did something. stewartb Seems like another example … Continue reading NHS Scotland to be hammered for hundreds of millions in US drug deal Scotland had no say in