Tag: health

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As BBC UK report a real breast cancer scandal, a reminder of how Lisa Summers made one up all by herself to unfairly demonise oncology staff in Dundee

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 This is a story on BBC Breakfast this morning based on a BMJ study, of: Twenty women had mastectomies unnecessarily while being treated for breast cancer at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, it has emerged. In a briefing paper presented to the board, the trust stated that 32 women received excessive surgery when a wide local excision would have been appropriate. Of these, 20 had a mastectomy without clinical need, the trust confirmed. Delayed diagnosis of breast cancer was also identified in 20 women during a review of … Continue reading As BBC UK report a real breast cancer scandal, a reminder of how Lisa Summers made one up all by herself to unfairly demonise oncology staff in Dundee

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As Maggie’s ‘broken children’, drug users from the teenage wasteland of the 1980s, fall off the graph, Scotland’s drug deaths will fall below those of England in ten years or less

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Channel 4 News tonight reminded me of something important, positive, about Scotland’s drug deaths – age. Look at this – Age-specific mortality rates of drug use deaths by broad age group, registered in 2000 to 2025: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2025/ There were 21.4 drug use deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, after adjusting for age. However, when you have a think about the rate in each of the 5 age groups, you should be able to see signs of a tipping point coming when overal drug deaths plummet. This drama all started more than 40 years ago, in the years after Margaret Thatcher … Continue reading As Maggie’s ‘broken children’, drug users from the teenage wasteland of the 1980s, fall off the graph, Scotland’s drug deaths will fall below those of England in ten years or less

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NHS Scotland’s gentler touch keeps ‘ghost patients’ safe from harm

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From the Guardian today: ‘Ghost patient’ policy wrongly removing at-risk people from GP lists, doctors say – An NHS policy to remove “ghost patients” from GP lists is inadvertently leaving some of the poorest people in England without vital healthcare, analysis has found. Under previous NHS rules, inactive patients at risk of being removed from their GP practice were given six months to respond to outreach. But under NHS England’s accelerated list validation timeline, introduced last October, patients now have only three months to reply. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/sep/23/nhs-england-ghost-patient-policy-wrongly-removing-vulnerable-people What are the … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s gentler touch keeps ‘ghost patients’ safe from harm

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Drug deaths – one-year increase does not change overall trend which is down 15%

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Last year, the NRS graph, after a one year fall, showed also the trend in a dotted line with a shaded bandwidth of confidence and a fall from the peak of 1 339 to 1 017, 24%. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2024/ For some reason, time maybe, this year’s graph does not show the trend. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Today, to a gleeful media feeding frenzy, we see they’ve gone up again, ‘by 11%’ to 1 133, so the fall from 2020 is now 15% but the trend, sorry MSM, is still down. They had a nice … Continue reading Drug deaths – one-year increase does not change overall trend which is down 15%

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New Scottish food promotion rules ignored by media as they wait instead drooling for more drug deaths

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From Food promotion rules in Scotland from 1 October 2026 – Changes to support healthier choices, published this morning, the above reaction from the media operating in Scotland. Watch them move when they get a sniff of the drug deaths on Wednesday. The main points they could quickly copy and use as the basis for a quick call to a local supermarket owned in London: From 1 October 2026, regulations will change how food and drinks high in fat, sugar or salt can be promoted and displayed in shops … Continue reading New Scottish food promotion rules ignored by media as they wait instead drooling for more drug deaths

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Scotland’s world-first Naloxone opioid-reversal kits will help stem the tide of death but cannot stop this cross-border flow

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 James Cook today, delighting in being able to regurgitate the last bit below: Efforts to bring down Scotland’s sky-high rate of drug deaths are being frustrated by the arrival of hundreds of powerful new synthetic substances that experts warn are making the deadly drugs crisis even more dangerous. In the past three years, there has been an explosion in the supply of new synthetic cannabinoids and opioids, transforming the illicit drugs trade and increasing the risk of fatal overdoses. Annual figures to be released on Wednesday are expected to … Continue reading Scotland’s world-first Naloxone opioid-reversal kits will help stem the tide of death but cannot stop this cross-border flow

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James Cook still still trying to hide UK Police Chiefs’ evidence that Scotland is victim of drug gangs from London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool crossing border to keep drug deaths high

johnrobertson834

There’s no mention of England in James Cook‘s report nor is there in the fuller report on the BBC Scotland website. This is political. The drug-related death statistics coming out this Wednesday 23 September are, it seems, expected to show an increase and that is being connected to new more powerful synthetic opioids like Nitazene. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 In both reports, there are attempts to locate the supply in Scotland and avoid the real story, below. Is there evidence in other sources that these gangs are based in large cities in England? … Continue reading James Cook still still trying to hide UK Police Chiefs’ evidence that Scotland is victim of drug gangs from London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool crossing border to keep drug deaths high

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14 more of ‘the smallest and sickest babies’ who make it in Scotland would not have survived in England but a consultant from Nottingham (!) tells us that Scottish Government delays are putting them at risk here

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are being put at risk by delaye in the reorganisation of neonatal care. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goin Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 BBC Scotland‘s insert in BBC Breakfast today includes this evidence from Dr Stephen Wardle, president of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine: So yes, delays in making progress with these proposals will be affecting the outcome for some of these babies. Wardle is a Consultant Neonatologist at Nottingham University Hospitals. The BAMP is essentially a trade union and not some leading research centre for neonatal medicine. Nottingham University Hospitals? From BBC … Continue reading 14 more of ‘the smallest and sickest babies’ who make it in Scotland would not have survived in England but a consultant from Nottingham (!) tells us that Scottish Government delays are putting them at risk here

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Thousands of cancer patients not treated on time after nearly two decades of right-wing government cuts and neglect in England

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From BBC Health today and on BBC Breakfast this morning, the above story and: Alan was diagnosed with lung cancer after a nodule was found in June last year. The 70-year-old was meant to be operated on within weeks but ended up waiting nearly five months, by which time the cancer had spread, making his surgery more complex. “I was so frustrated and angry and couldn’t understand why they would leave me like that,” says Alan. On two occasions, scans were cancelled because machines … Continue reading Thousands of cancer patients not treated on time after nearly two decades of right-wing government cuts and neglect in England

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90% of those at risk of opioid overdose now supplied with Scottish Government’s word-leading reversal kit to keep drugs deaths falling and hospital load plummeting in face of English drug gang plague

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From National naloxone programme Scotland – Quarterly monitoring bulletin Quarterly monitoring bulletin January to March (Q4) 2025/26, published yesterday, the above graph and: This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme (NNP) in Scotland (January to March 2025/26). Figures are presented separately for kits issued from community-based services (mainly specialist drug treatment and non-drug treatment services), kits issued in prisons at the point of liberation, kits dispensed via community prescription, … Continue reading 90% of those at risk of opioid overdose now supplied with Scottish Government’s word-leading reversal kit to keep drugs deaths falling and hospital load plummeting in face of English drug gang plague