Tag: mental-health

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Labour fail to run NHS properly – NHS Scotland now treating many anorexia patients from England and even one from 400 miles away in Wales

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser, finishing in 6 days, 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 iusedtobeenglish for alerting me to this. From BBC Wales yesterday: A woman who was diagnosed with anorexia at 19 had to travel as far away as Glasgow … Continue reading Labour fail to run NHS properly – NHS Scotland now treating many anorexia patients from England and even one from 400 miles away in Wales

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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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NHS Scotland saving hundreds of lives with better cancer care performance

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 BBC Health is headlining today problems and delays in cancer care in England & Wales. BBC Scotland has nothing similar. Here’s why: In the Guardian on 3 February 2025: More than half a million people in England have had to … Continue reading NHS Scotland saving hundreds of lives with better cancer care performance

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Mental health services – 18% improvement in one year as almost 90% of children and adolescents now treated within target

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today is headlining their own Disclosure team’s interviews with teenagers from one Glasgow unit. It sounds tragic. While taking nothing away from the unacceptability of the treatment reported, BBC Scotland also has a responsibility beyond that, to inform the public of the wider context so that one negative report does not, unfairly, come to represent reality for their audience. The latest figures, from Public Health Scotland, tell another important and different story: For the quarter ending September 2024: 89.1% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an … Continue reading Mental health services – 18% improvement in one year as almost 90% of children and adolescents now treated within target

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The Herald’s Neil Mackay, Audit Scotland and a charity head combine to imagine an ‘unprecedented crisis’ in mental health treatment and to lay the blame on the Scottish Government for ‘losing control’ yet waiting times are slashed and performance approaches 90% target

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 In the Herald, today: Mental illness is rocketing, while government funding falls. Suicides are rising, along with self-harm, autism, ADHD and loneliness. The head of Scotland’s leading mental health charity explains to our Writer at Large just … Continue reading The Herald’s Neil Mackay, Audit Scotland and a charity head combine to imagine an ‘unprecedented crisis’ in mental health treatment and to lay the blame on the Scottish Government for ‘losing control’ yet waiting times are slashed and performance approaches 90% target

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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’!

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Three England-only research reports do not prove that eating disorder treatment in Scotland is underfunded especially when NHS Scotland can treat 84 cases from England

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to https://bsky.app/profile/keepinfairlieweird.bsky.social for alerting me to this. From BBC Health today: Lives are being lost and families torn apart because of “woefully inadequate care” for people with eating disorders, according to a group of MPs. The “alarming” rise in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, over the past decade, has now become an “emergency”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders says in a report. The report refers to figures showing a growing number of people affected: The report says services are “grossly” underfunded, there are barriers to accessing treatment and wide variations in care quality … Continue reading Three England-only research reports do not prove that eating disorder treatment in Scotland is underfunded especially when NHS Scotland can treat 84 cases from England

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Lib Dumbs have another go at making up the numbers to reveal police Scotland staff have well below UK level of absences for ‘psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, and stress’

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Today, on BBC Reporting Scotland, faithfully repeating what’s in 1919, an online mag with no peer-review and no standards of referencing, dedicated to representing uncritically the views of the police officers’ trade union and any opposition politician who will help them claim they’re hard done by, in Scotland: The number of working days lost to mental ill health in Police Scotland has surged by more than 50 per cent over the past five years. Since 2019, officers and staff have taken a total of 440,630 days off due to psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, and stress. The findings come amid … Continue reading Lib Dumbs have another go at making up the numbers to reveal police Scotland staff have well below UK level of absences for ‘psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, and stress’

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Are Scottish doctors still likely to be less stressed than others in the UK? This survey will not tell us

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian yesterday: Seven in 10 GPs suffer from compassion fatigue and struggle to empathise with patients because they are worn out from caring for them, a survey has found. Family doctors say they are so emotionally and physically exhausted from hearing about patients’ problems and circumstances that it is compromising the quality of care they provide. A poll of 1,855 doctors across the UK found that 71% of GPs and 62% of medics overall have experienced compassion fatigue, which undermines the doctor-patient relationship. “Compassion fatigue is effectively a hidden, secondary trauma with symptoms that can ultimately make it … Continue reading Are Scottish doctors still likely to be less stressed than others in the UK? This survey will not tell us

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Despite far more patients assessed and cared for at home, NHS Scotland still maintains more hospital beds than NHS England

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks once again to AR for alerting to me to this. The Sunday Times today has a report on the state of an imaginary NHS UK and the declining provision of hospital beds is presented as a major problem, which it is, if you have not done so in response to a major shift toward properly assessed and supported care at home. From People requiring a social care assessment and care at home services, published on December 17th 2024, by the Scottish Government: The number of people estimated to be waiting on a social care assessment to enable them … Continue reading Despite far more patients assessed and cared for at home, NHS Scotland still maintains more hospital beds than NHS England