Tag: mental-health

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Plummeting drug deaths and target-busting treatment but they desperately hang on to Scotland’s past

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland‘s website is headlining the vote in Holyrood yesterday which rejected the Conservative Party’s proposed bill that would have given people with drug and alcohol addictions the legal right to treatment. The report opens with  Former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who tabled the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill, said the legislation would have saved lives. However, opponents said the proposals risked overburdening already stretched services. No evidence for either of these claims if offered and the author has little choice but to tell us, at same point, even if later, the facts which … Continue reading Plummeting drug deaths and target-busting treatment but they desperately hang on to Scotland’s past

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NHS England has to pay out more than twice as much as NHS Scotland for ‘maternity failings’

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Professor John Robertson OBA Many thanks to Brian McGowan for alerting us to this. How are things in Scotland you ask? £1.3 billion was paid out in 2024/205: https://www.cwj.co.uk/site/newsandevents/legalnews/costs_of_NHS_maternity_care_claims_revealed.html Per head, that £1.3 billion becomes £13 billion, less than half the NHS England pay-outs of £27 billion. Why might this difference exist? See this from Stirling University researchers in the BMJ in 2019: We found few differences in maternity care experience for women based on their physical or socioeconomic characteristics. Our findings indicate that maternity care in Scotland is generally equitable. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e023282 Further measures in Scotland: In January 2024, the Daily Mail reporting a drop … Continue reading NHS England has to pay out more than twice as much as NHS Scotland for ‘maternity failings’

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A story never to be told – Domestic abuse of women twice as common and, of children, four times as common, across the border

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and abusive past has made more than 19 500 reports since it started ten years ago. Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland in their BBC Breakfast insert have the above special report today but it’s not being coverfed anywhere else. Interesting, what effect is the scheme having on the relative level of domestic abuse and violence against women in Scotland? That would be an obvious question to ask. They don’t go there so here is the wider picture: Domestic abuse is TWICE as common in England and Wales as in Scotland From the Scottish Government’s Safer Communities Directorate: The police recorded 63,867 incidents … Continue reading A story never to be told – Domestic abuse of women twice as common and, of children, four times as common, across the border

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How can there be ‘an A&E crisis’ of deaths ‘associated’ with long waits only in Scotland when they are actually falling here and nearly FOUR times as common in NHS England?

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With only 7 days left, support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA This morning, the Scotsman and the Metro are feeding BBC Scotland with the idea based on the emergency doctors’ trade union report, the RCEM, that long A&E waits are ‘associated with’, ‘costing‘ and the ‘toll‘ from stays of 12 hours and more. Only BBC Scotland has this headlined. As always there’s a basic flaw in their argument – the number waiting 12 hours … Continue reading How can there be ‘an A&E crisis’ of deaths ‘associated’ with long waits only in Scotland when they are actually falling here and nearly FOUR times as common in NHS England?

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BBC Scotland keeps a sickening media feeding frenzy going regarding a ‘cruelty claim children’s unit’ in Glasgow but sheds no light

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today: No inspections were carried out at cruelty claim children’s unit – No official regulator had the power to inspect Scotland’s biggest children’s psychiatric hospital during a seven-year period in which staff were accused of cruelty to patients, it has emerged. Skye House in Glasgow was visited between 2017 and 2024 by advisory body the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland. However, it did not have any enforcement powers. … Continue reading BBC Scotland keeps a sickening media feeding frenzy going regarding a ‘cruelty claim children’s unit’ in Glasgow but sheds no light

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Leading research group casts doubt on NHS England’s waiting list figures

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stewartb As has been highlighted before on TuS, one needs to look closely and critically at performance statistics for NHS England. They are not always what they seem – cf. 12 hour A&E waits. The Nuffield Trust is now exposing yet more dodgy data. Source: Nuffield Trust (August 13 2025) Why is the planned care waiting list coming down and what does the data really tell us? Context: ‘When Wes Streeting celebrated the improvement in the waiting list – saying “thanks to our interventions and the hard work of NHS staff, the overall waiting list has now fallen in April for the … Continue reading Leading research group casts doubt on NHS England’s waiting list figures

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After 18 years of plummeting crime figures, police recorded AND surveyed by academics, Scots themselves confirm it again – crime IS falling and is far lower than in England & Wales

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA The above poll results for 31 August 2025, repeat something I’ve noticed for years now – Scots seems significantly les concerned about crime than those elsewhere in the UK. At the beginning of August, the same pollster found a ration of 19 to 11 between the UK and Scottish responses. Why might this be? I’d say it’s a clear indicator that the other two sources, policed recorded crime statistics, large … Continue reading After 18 years of plummeting crime figures, police recorded AND surveyed by academics, Scots themselves confirm it again – crime IS falling and is far lower than in England & Wales

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In Scotland, twice as many midwives and 33% more nurses

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA There’s a lot happening today, a lot to rebut, so we’ll do this rubbish from the Scotsman quickly. Too many vacancies is disturbing but more important is how many midwives and nurses do we have per head of population? First, England and midwives: Midwives: Using the NHS England figure of 23,396 midwives in November 2023 (most specific and recent for England). https://www.england.nhs.uk/2024/01/record-number-of-nurses-and-midwives-working-in-nhs/ Population: Approximately 57.1 million (mid-2023 estimate). https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/annualmidyearpopulationestimates/mid2023 Ratio: … Continue reading In Scotland, twice as many midwives and 33% more nurses

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European Union Drugs Agency – drug deaths ‘must be understood as underestimations’ (as in England) proving that Scotland is only the ‘Drug Death Accurate Reporting’ capital of Europe

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 By JB We all saw the MSM headlines yesterday: “ although Scotland’s drug deaths fell they still ‘remain’ the highest in Europe”. Based on what comparable statistics? From AI…”Comparable statistics allow for systematic evaluation, hypothesis testing, and data-driven decision-making by identifying similarities and differences between groups or phenomena. To be comparable, data must either be collected with  standardised methods and definitions  or have undergone a thorough assessment of differences in methodology to … Continue reading European Union Drugs Agency – drug deaths ‘must be understood as underestimations’ (as in England) proving that Scotland is only the ‘Drug Death Accurate Reporting’ capital of Europe

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Sickening exploitation of own son’s drug death on behalf of Scottish Labour’s 2026 campaign when Up to 90% of Scotland’s drug deaths were among those who became addicted before the SNP came to power, more than 90% of nearly 30 000 referrals per year are treated within 3 weeks and more than half within only 1 week!

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA In the Daily Record (Sunday Mail?) today, the above and: Sir Ian McCartney was serving as a Cabinet Office minister overseeing drugs policy in Tony Blair’s government when his son Hugh, 23, was found dead in a Glasgow flat in 1999 after taking heroin. “It has been a huge political failure because from day one of the SNP government, despite the work that had been done previously, by [former Labour first minister] Jack McConnell, Gordon Brown and myself, there was a decision taken that all … Continue reading Sickening exploitation of own son’s drug death on behalf of Scottish Labour’s 2026 campaign when Up to 90% of Scotland’s drug deaths were among those who became addicted before the SNP came to power, more than 90% of nearly 30 000 referrals per year are treated within 3 weeks and more than half within only 1 week!