Tag: health

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Research reveals increasing mental health referrals among children may be more due to a greater readiness to come forward and to coding changes than to an actual increase in depression and anxiety and casts Daily Record reporting as ill-informed and exploitative

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The dominant narrative across the media operating in Scotland, the opposition parties and a few parents groomed by them, is, as in the Daily Record headline above, on 20 April 2026. Often ignored are these facts: From Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times Quarter ending March 2026 published today, the above graph showing the 90% target beaten for 6 quarters (3 months) in a row, and: 91.2% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 90.0% for the previous quarter. 3,858 people started treatment in CAMHS. This is an increase of 2.4% (91) from the 3,767 starting … Continue reading Research reveals increasing mental health referrals among children may be more due to a greater readiness to come forward and to coding changes than to an actual increase in depression and anxiety and casts Daily Record reporting as ill-informed and exploitative

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Nottingham, Sussex, Shrewsbury and now Leeds – Why England’s national maternity scandal is not coming to Perth or anywhere in Scotland

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Across BBC TV broadcasts and BBC West Yorkshire today: Bereaved mothers and families have been invited to meet the chair of an inquiry looking into “repeated failures” at maternity units in Leeds. Donna Ockenden, who recently led a similar inquiry into failings in Nottingham, will lead a review into maternity and neonatal services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Trust. The senior midwife will speak to impacted families in the city on Saturday over their concerns surrounding local midwifery services. It comes after a BBC investigation found the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the last five years at … Continue reading Nottingham, Sussex, Shrewsbury and now Leeds – Why England’s national maternity scandal is not coming to Perth or anywhere in Scotland

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Glasgow’s giant hospital is revealed as one of safest in Scotland and far safer than several of NHS England’s really ‘scandal-hit’ hospitals

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The Times today is front-paging a story of a floor-cleaning fluid and the apparent lack of clear instructions on its use. Staff have been ‘offered the chance to speak to occupational health.’ Disturbing, I agree. Something should be done, I agree but front page on a major newspaper? Is it there, only because the hospital in question has been subject to repeated, ill-informed, hyperbolic, claims from Scottish Labour and associating it with the current SNP Government? Using real, important, data, just how good is the QEUH and compared to other hospitals across the UK not, it seems , ‘scandal -hit?’ … Continue reading Glasgow’s giant hospital is revealed as one of safest in Scotland and far safer than several of NHS England’s really ‘scandal-hit’ hospitals

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How Nick Hancock ordered PPE manufacturers not to send supplies to Scottish care homes for the elderly in 2020 – The pandemic exposed the Union for what it is

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Yesterday, BBC Health had: The lives of NHS staff and patients were put at risk in the pandemic because of a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), with almost £10bn of taxpayers’ money wasted in a scramble to buy more, the Covid inquiry has said. The chair Baroness Hallett criticised the “vast” waste in procurement, put at £9.9bn – two-thirds of the £14.9bn the government spent on PPE. The UK entered the pandemic with its stockpile of masks, gowns and gloves in a perilous state and was unprepared for the global race to secure supplies, she added. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrxrlydyzzo BBC … Continue reading How Nick Hancock ordered PPE manufacturers not to send supplies to Scottish care homes for the elderly in 2020 – The pandemic exposed the Union for what it is

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Six unique steps the SNP Government is taking to avert the claim that ‘children will be one of the unhealthiest generations in decades’

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You know what I’m going to say. Yes, no mention of Scotland in this, from the Guardian‘s Health Correspondent, Tobi Thomas. Do you think that means Tobi has done the research and knows that doomy claim applies equally to Scotland? Has s/he flip! The Scottish Government has taken several targeted actions on child nutrition, obesity, and related health issues, which could help mitigate aspects of the UK-wide problems highlighted in the RCPCH report upon which the Guardian report is based. Such as? Here are a selected six of them. Expansion of free school meals to tackle child poverty and improve … Continue reading Six unique steps the SNP Government is taking to avert the claim that ‘children will be one of the unhealthiest generations in decades’

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Disability benefits – Burnham only has to ask as Scotland already offers a large majority of what is proposed for a ‘truly progressive system’

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In the Guardian today, once more, complete Anglocentrism as a writer does not think to ask if any other part of the UK has already done what she wants Andy Burnham to do. There’s not a mention of Scotland in the above but to what extent does the Scottish system already offer what is suggested? Scotland’s Adult Disability Payment (ADP) system already delivers a substantial portion of what the article advocates, particularly in shifting away from the most criticised elements of the current PIP system in England and Wales. It provides a more humane, less intrusive process and greater security … Continue reading Disability benefits – Burnham only has to ask as Scotland already offers a large majority of what is proposed for a ‘truly progressive system’

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

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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 are between 2 and 3 times faster thousands of times but Daily Record finds another case to to deflect you with

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

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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?

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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

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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?