Tag: healthcare

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Scotland beware – Right-wing Reform leader Farage wants to replace the NHS with a USA style “insurance based model”

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By JB Right-wing Reform leader Farage wants to replace the NHS with a USA style “insurance based model”. One of the many companies the multi-millionaire Farage owns, which was set up in May 2024, is called ‘Action on World Health LLP’. As “Co-founder and Chairman” Farage wants to reform or replace the World Health Organisation. One of its directors is also a director of a consultancy which advises, among other sectors, health care firms – “particularly mental and behavioural health”.  According to the hypocritical Labour Government Health Secretary Wes Streeting “Farage has been pushing healthcare charges to his supporters in … Continue reading Scotland beware – Right-wing Reform leader Farage wants to replace the NHS with a USA style “insurance based model”

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How NHS Scotland repeatedly has and can help NHS England patients

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Independent yesterday, the above, and: Enhertu is the first licensed targeted treatment for patients with HER2-low breast cancer that cannot be removed surgically or that has spread to other parts of the body. Patients are usually offered chemotherapy, but Breast Cancer Now explains the targeted drug could offer people more time to live in comparison. Enhertu was approved for use in Scotland in December 2023 but was rejected for use on NHS England in March 2024 by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) because it was too expensive. In September 2023, 84 patients have to … Continue reading How NHS Scotland repeatedly has and can help NHS England patients

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Medicine shortages after Brexit – Scotland’s model for pharmacy offers lessons for England’s future

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and: Drug companies notified the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) about disruptions to supply 1,938 times during last year – the highest number since the 1,967 seen in 2021. Medications to treat epilepsy and cystic fibrosis are among those that pharmacists are finding it hard or impossible to get hold of, creating risks for patients’ health. The figures have emerged in a new report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank, which obtained them under freedom of information laws from the DHSC, which oversees the availability of drugs UK-wide. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/22/brexit-key-factor-worst-uk-drug-shortages-in-four-years The … Continue reading Medicine shortages after Brexit – Scotland’s model for pharmacy offers lessons for England’s future

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Former New Labour minister tries to hide the abolishing of the whole NHS England system, not just the ‘quango’ and the deaths that will follow

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to AR for alerting me to this. The word ‘Perspective’ there, is doing heavy lifting as former Blair Minister, Brian ‘Bad Vibrations’ Wilson, tries to tell us that Starmer is only getting rid of the NHS England top layer and freeing the trusts up, to get imaginative [spend the money in the private sector] and, of course leave NHS Scotland behind. It’s by no means just a perspective, a point of view, It’s a whopping lie. Here’s another ‘perspective‘ but a far more honest and clear-sighted one: The Starmer government’s announcement that it is abolishing … Continue reading Former New Labour minister tries to hide the abolishing of the whole NHS England system, not just the ‘quango’ and the deaths that will follow

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How Orkney islanders fought off a lung cancer risk, nearly 100 times the normal rate

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Professor John Robertson OBA Many thanks to Frances McKie for alerting me to this. In 1975, not much reported at the time, as far as I can remember, the residents of the Orkney Islands faced and fought off a dark threat. From Beyond Nuclear International in April 2021: The Orkneys were being surveyed for a potentially valuable deposit of uranium ore. The South Scottish Electricity Board had already persuaded local farmers, unaware of the health risks, to allow bore hole drilling on their land. By 1977, the entire local population on Orkney opposed uranium exploitation there. Among those opponents was … Continue reading How Orkney islanders fought off a lung cancer risk, nearly 100 times the normal rate

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Labour Freedom of Information request on cervical cancer with figures edited and used to scare by omitting the wider facts

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Professor John Robertson OBA I used to teach Research Methods to BA Journalism students. Nice kids with ambitions to helpfully inform readers. I worry for them now. Corporate and state media care little for informing, seek only to attract readers with scares and titillation and, must surely damage the mental health of those who work within. First, that claim – Wait times for cervical examinations increase in all but one health area since 2019 – is based on a Labour Freedom of Information request with the results edited to pick out this negative example and fed to uncritical media but … Continue reading Labour Freedom of Information request on cervical cancer with figures edited and used to scare by omitting the wider facts

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NHS Scotland’s ‘excellent ovarian [and other] cancer services across Scotland’

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Express today, rehashing a Record story on February 13th 2025, has the sickly headline: John Swinney shamed over NHS failures to treat Scottish women with ovarian cancer It’s nonsense. The facts, first on all cancers: In the Guardian on 3 February 2025: More than half a million people in England have had to wait longer than two months for essential cancer treatment, analysis of latest NHS figures has shown. It has led experts to suggest thousands more patients will die unnecessarily unless the NHS gets to grips quickly with the delays. Analysis of new NHS figures by Radiotherapy UK shows that in the … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s ‘excellent ovarian [and other] cancer services across Scotland’

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Scottish Labour to announce plans to make more use of private sector despite major Oxford University research review proving it will lead to ‘higher rates of avoidable death’

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The Scottish leader Anas Sarwar will announce plans to reduce health waiting lists by making greater use of the private sector. Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS BBC Scotland this morning, on the Scottish Labour conference today, tell us the above astonishing news. It’s now a full year since the Lancet reported on large scale research review by Oxford University telling us that this strategy is extremely ill-advised. From Oxford University researchers, reported in The Lancet, on 29 February 2024: A new review has concluded that hospitals that are privatised typically deliver worse quality care after converting from public ownership. … Continue reading Scottish Labour to announce plans to make more use of private sector despite major Oxford University research review proving it will lead to ‘higher rates of avoidable death’

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Should Jackie Baillie not be asking why A&E 12 hour waits are far less common in Scotland than in England or Wales?

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily, finishing on 28 February, to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland – a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS Thanks to AR for alerting me to this. The Scottish Labour Branch health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie has already asked the above question. Given that her party now runs the NHS … Continue reading Should Jackie Baillie not be asking why A&E 12 hour waits are far less common in Scotland than in England or Wales?

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A ‘front door’ A&E innovation in the NHS to benefit the frail gains support across the UK:  Unionist politicians in Scotland call it ‘granny bouncers’!

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By stewartb Scotland’s FM gave a speech (January 27) on actions to relieve pressures on NHS Scotland to the benefit of patients. Among the measures proposed, he referenced this: ‘By this summer, we will have specialised staff in frailty teams, at the front door of every A&E department in Scotland. This will mean that frail patients, often older patients with complex needs, will bypass our busy A&Es, in order to receive the specialist care and support they need, whether in hospital or back at home. It will mean better care for these most vulnerable patients while reducing the pressure on … Continue reading A ‘front door’ A&E innovation in the NHS to benefit the frail gains support across the UK:  Unionist politicians in Scotland call it ‘granny bouncers’!