Tag: mental-health

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SNP Government’s defence of the disabled against ‘a cruel penalty’ portrayed as economic mismanagement by BBC Scotland

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In the Guardian, today, the above (left) and: Hundreds of thousands of severely ill and disabled people making new claims will have their benefits cut if the government assesses that their condition might improve, charities have said. In April, the health element of universal credit – an extra payment for people assessed as too unwell to work or prepare for work – will be halved to £50 a week and frozen for new claimants unless their condition is found to be terminal or severe and lifelong with no prospect of improvement. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/29/disabled-benefit-claimants-face-lower-payments-if-conditions-not-deemed-lifelong-charities-say Will this apply in Scotland? PIP and equivalent … Continue reading SNP Government’s defence of the disabled against ‘a cruel penalty’ portrayed as economic mismanagement by BBC Scotland

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Will Scotland’s model for pharmacy offers lessons for predicted ‘Iran war’ shortages?

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In the Guardian today: Britain [sic] is “a few weeks away” from medicine shortages ranging from painkillers to cancer treatment if the Iran war continues, according to experts, while drug prices could also rise. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/28/uk-weeks-away-medicine-shortages-iran-war-impacts-experts-warn The above makes no mention of Scotland. Searching for reports of shortages in Scotland gets the same story of shortages in England plus, When I saw the Guardian piece I was reminded of this intriguing suggestion: One potential solution lies in affording community pharmacy greater latitude in altering prescriptions – a practice that could save immense amounts of NHS funds and ease the mounting pressure … Continue reading Will Scotland’s model for pharmacy offers lessons for predicted ‘Iran war’ shortages?

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Scotland avoids large classes and lack of support staff found in England to have ‘created a barrier to inclusion’

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In the Guardian today: Lack of specialist staff hinders support for Send children, teacher survey finds – National Education Union poll finds 89% feel class sizes in England are too big to be ‘properly inclusive’. Oversized classes and inadequate staffing levels are hindering teachers’ capacity to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), according to a large survey of state school teachers in England. Nine out of 10 (89%) of the 10,000 teachers who took part in the poll by the National Education Union (NEU), before its annual conference in Brighton which starts on Monday, said class sizes … Continue reading Scotland avoids large classes and lack of support staff found in England to have ‘created a barrier to inclusion’

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The Dark Side of NHS England and Jackie Baillie’s only waiting times ‘victory’ over Scotland

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In August 2025, STV and many other media reported: Long NHS waits are over 800 times more common in Scotland than they are in England, Scottish Labour has claimed. The party said its own analysis of publicly available figures showed Scotland had nearly 15,000 ongoing waits of two years or more – representing one case per 367 people. Meanwhile, NHS England reported having 182 waits of more than two years, or around one in 317,000 people. The figures involve those waiting more than two years on NHS outpatient, inpatient or day case waiting lists. Under this measure, Labour said the … Continue reading The Dark Side of NHS England and Jackie Baillie’s only waiting times ‘victory’ over Scotland

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Scotland does TWICE the UK rate of heart transplants per capita, thanks to additional financial support from the SNP government but the UK does lag far behind rest of Europe

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From BBC Health two days ago, the above and: The UK used to be a world leader in the field – but has fallen behind major Western nations. The number of heart and lung transplants the NHS carries out each year has not increased in three decades. BBC File on 4 Investigates has found that technology is outdated, there is a lack of investment and senior surgeons are leaving – while patients point to issues with ongoing care. and: While the number of organs donated in the UK is equal to, or better than, much of other parts of Europe … Continue reading Scotland does TWICE the UK rate of heart transplants per capita, thanks to additional financial support from the SNP government but the UK does lag far behind rest of Europe

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The Health Secretary in England says the NHS is ‘on the road to recovery’ but two think tanks reveal it’s nowhere near catching NHS Scotland

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By stewartb The health think tank, the Kings Fund in collaboration the Nuffield Trust has just published a report on public satisfaction in 2025 with the NHS and social care across the UK. It is based on British Social Attitudes Survey research. The report notes: ‘The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is a ‘gold standard’, nationally representative survey that uses a robust methodology to explore public views on what it is like to live in Britain and how respondents think the country is run.’ (See https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/2026-03/public-satisfaction-with-the-nhs-and-social-care-in-2025.pdf ) The research provides views on the NHS overall and on selected NHS services viz. general practice, … Continue reading The Health Secretary in England says the NHS is ‘on the road to recovery’ but two think tanks reveal it’s nowhere near catching NHS Scotland

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Understanding Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 2 – How Jeanne Freeman’s, unique in the UK, quick action on vaccines saved thousands of lives

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In BBC Scotland’s retrospective comment on Jeanne Freeman’s time as Health Secretary, they write: Freeman stood beside Sturgeon in press conferences throughout the next year. There would be praise for their calm stewardship and she was there at the start of the vaccine roll-out. But the decision to discharge elderly hospital patients to care homes during the first few weeks of the pandemic without a requirement for a negative test was one which hung over Freeman for the rest of her time in politics and beyond. The worst mortality rates were later seen within care homes as the virus spread among … Continue reading Understanding Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 2 – How Jeanne Freeman’s, unique in the UK, quick action on vaccines saved thousands of lives

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A major new study counters ‘deluge of negativity, accusations and downright lies’ about NHS Scotland

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By Jim Mennie The Meidas Scotland  ‘Have Your Say’ survey created to gather feedback on Scottish NHS experiences — Scottish NHS: Your Stories Matter — has gathered over 400 responses in a matter of weeks and is already generating valuable insight.  The survey link – https://meidasscotland.eaction.org.uk/hospitals Meidas Scotland – https://www.facebook.com/people/Meidas-Scotland/61573925276612/ https://x.com/MeidasScotland and https://bsky.app/profile/sovereign.scothttps://www.instagram.com/meidasscotland/https://www.tiktok.com/@meidasscotlandhttps://free-scotland.scot/ I created this survey after becoming furious at the sheer deluge of negativity, accusations and downright lies coming from some politicians and parts of the mainstream Scottish media. Enough was enough — if they weren’t going to tell the truth, then I’d ask the public directly. I wanted the … Continue reading A major new study counters ‘deluge of negativity, accusations and downright lies’ about NHS Scotland

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The story of Covid was not the same across the UK – this is a deliberate lie to conceal Scotland’s demonstrably and significantly better performance and recovery

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across the UK, but recovery after Covid is perhaps one area where Scotland has performed a little bit worse than England England in terms of the waiting times for non-urgent operations that people are facing right now. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002szh1/reporting-scotland-lunchtime-news-19032026 BBC Reporting Scotland today, ignoring all the evidence that does not fit their agenda and trying to tell you that the SNP Government did no better and even, in recovery, even worse. First excess deaths First, Excess Deaths – From the Covid Inquiry documents, Table 13, during the pandemic period from March 2020 to February 2022, in England, excess deaths were 6.5% … Continue reading The story of Covid was not the same across the UK – this is a deliberate lie to conceal Scotland’s demonstrably and significantly better performance and recovery

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How can violent crime by children and adolescents fall so much in last 20 years yet school violence be increasing?

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There’s a constant narrative across all of of the media in Scotland that won’t go away and that is being ramped up in the hope that it might save Anas Sarwar in May. I’m not for a minute saying that violence in schools is not a serious problem which has to be dealt with and I’m agreeing fully that teaching can be a very challenging job but the idea that it is increasing dramatically trigger cognitive dissonance. Why? It’s in my title question. We don’t have any hard evidence of increasing violence in schools, only mostly anecdotal accounts. Again, I’m … Continue reading How can violent crime by children and adolescents fall so much in last 20 years yet school violence be increasing?