NHS Scotland staffed and equipped to do more than 98% of planned operations on time despite steadily increasing demand

By Professor John Robertson From Public Health Scotland on 2nd July 2024: During May 2024, there were 25,657 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 6.4% higher than the number planned a year previously in May 2023 (24,125). • The number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since pandemic restrictions first affected provision of services in March 2020. In the 12 months from April 2023 to May 2024, there was an 8% increase in the number of planned operations compared to the previous 12 months. This compares to a 15.3% year-on-year increase when comparing year ending May … Continue reading NHS Scotland staffed and equipped to do more than 98% of planned operations on time despite steadily increasing demand

As outsourced cleaning results in deadly infection outbreak via basins and showers in an English hospital how this Scottish Health Secretary kept cleaning in-house 16 years ago to save uncounted lives

By Professor John Robertson Today in the Health Service Journal: Frimley Health had 94 cases of CPE last year, due to a major outbreak at Wexham Park The trust has ordered a mortality and morbidity review but does not say if it has been completed CPE thought to travel through drains, affecting wash basins and showers. A hospital trust has ordered a review of potential death and harm caused by an outbreak of a serious healthcare-acquired infection, which is resistant to many antibiotics. Frimley Health Foundation Trust has seen outbreaks of carbapenemase-producing enterobacterales at both its Frimley Park and Wexham … Continue reading As outsourced cleaning results in deadly infection outbreak via basins and showers in an English hospital how this Scottish Health Secretary kept cleaning in-house 16 years ago to save uncounted lives

Why is BBC Scotland news editor James Cook ignoring Police Scotland alerts to another English-based drug gang operating here?

From Police Scotland, last night, the above image and: Two men have been sentenced for their part in a County Lines drugs operation between the North East of Scotland and the West Midlands. Fleury Tsaty, aged 29, was jailed for three years and three months, at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Friday, 28 June, 2024. Wasem Sharif, aged 19, was issued an 18 month community payback order. They were arrested in September 2022 following the execution of warrants at a number of addresses in the Seaton area of Aberdeen and in Birmingham. Heroin, crack cocaine and herbal cannabis with an estimated … Continue reading Why is BBC Scotland news editor James Cook ignoring Police Scotland alerts to another English-based drug gang operating here?

Lib Dem-assisted Conservative Council risks child exploitation for the Union

Aberdeenshire Council is run by a Conservative & Unionist/Lib Dem coalition. Former Berkshire Constituency agent for the Maidenhead Conservatives, Gillian Owen is the council leader whom was responsible for the education committee letting a school photographer take selective photographs to exclude children with complex needs. See: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/03/29/if-it-wasnt-the-aberdeenshire-school-it-was-the-tory-council-that-instructed-or-allowed-the-photographers-to-offer-parents-selective-class-photos/ Today, I see in the Dorset Echo: A safeguarding evening will be held in a primary school in Weymouth where parents will be informed how to keep children safe from modern dangers. Chickerell Primary Academy will be holding a free discussion evening from 6pm to 7.30pm at Willowbed Hall. The Escapeline charity, which … Continue reading Lib Dem-assisted Conservative Council risks child exploitation for the Union

Labour’s passivity on child poverty – ‘the country ‘can’t afford’ to end it

By stewartb In the news article referenced below on the increasing rates of child poverty in NE England, we learn of the Labour Party’s considered position – essentially the ‘country’, the UK can’t afford to end the child poverty associated with the Tories’ two child benefit cap! Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/labours-promise-reverse-north-east-190000891.html – ‘‘Labour’s promise to reverse North East child poverty rise and cut life expectancy gap’ In the article we learn: ‘New analysis published today [Friday] by the TUC has revealed a 44 per cent increase in child poverty among working households in the region – with more than one in four children in working households … Continue reading Labour’s passivity on child poverty – ‘the country ‘can’t afford’ to end it

Vote for KEEPING child poverty with Labour

By Professor John Robertson Astonishing! FFS Labour voted against the Scottish Child Payment, plan no reversal of the two-child benefit cap, have voted against free school meals and in Labour Wales, child poverty is far higher, yet the Daily Record allow Brown to lie shamefaced. In the Guardian on June 7th 2024: Local child poverty rates across the UK correlate very strongly with the percentage of families affected by the two-child benefit cap, research has found, indicating that the controversial policy is a key factor behind children growing up in deprivation. The study, carried out by Loughborough University for the End Child Poverty Coalition, will … Continue reading Vote for KEEPING child poverty with Labour

In Labour Wales A&E nearly twice as many wait more than 8 hours and three times as many wait more than 12 hours

By stewartb Latest update for the Labour politicians in Scotland who constantly berate the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland on A&E waiting times: Latest on waits in the main A&E departments in the NHS in Wales – from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (https://rcem.ac.uk/summer-provides-no-respite-for-over-stretched-emergency-departments/ ) 1) ’44.1% of patients (more than 2/5) waited four hours or longer (up 10.6% on April 2024)’ – so just 58.6% discharged, transferred or admitted within four hours. The RCEM reports ‘the number of patients having to wait more than four hours has almost doubled since 2017’. 2) ’23.2% (more than 1/5) of people waited … Continue reading In Labour Wales A&E nearly twice as many wait more than 8 hours and three times as many wait more than 12 hours

Tentacles of English drug gangs using children to fuel Scotland’s drug deaths reaches into every corner, even wee towns like Tarves in Aberdeenshire

I know Tarves. A small, just over one thousand population town/village, only half an hour bus journey away from Aberdeen’s railway station. Why the railway station? County Lines drug, child abuse and people trafficking, gangs send their young dealers and armed enforcers into the heart of smaller ‘county’ towns, by rail. In these towns they ‘cuckoo’ vulnerable adults, moving into their homes to deal drugs at lower cost than local dealers can, backed up by threats and attacks at a level of violence previously unseen. Children as young as 11 have been known to be bullied into working as dealers. … Continue reading Tentacles of English drug gangs using children to fuel Scotland’s drug deaths reaches into every corner, even wee towns like Tarves in Aberdeenshire

Conservative candidates too feart to attend public hustings

Conservative candidate, Martin Dowey (right), failed to turn up last night at a public hustings in Ayr, for the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock constituency. We must assume he feared the kind of hostility his party is getting everywhere outside of the South of England. What could he have said to the several WASPI women in the crowd or in response to questions about their mismanagement of the economy, their corruption, their betting scandal and umpteen other dark traces of their 14 years in power? Strangely, their former MP for the constituency, Bill Grant, whose views on the Union seem clear, … Continue reading Conservative candidates too feart to attend public hustings

Labour candidates forced to stay away or ‘rewrite the Labour manifesto’ as they face the public in hustings across Scotland

At a hustings in Ayr last night, a source said of the troubled Labour candidate for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, Elaine Stewart : The Labour candidate rewrote the Labour manifesto. She claims Labour support settling with the WASPI women. Also she had a great line when she said” that once Labour have established the financial position they will increase taxes, if needed. Another told us she expressed support for putting an end to the House of Lords. These are all expressions of support quite contrary to the Labour manifesto and reveal deep contradictions in the Labour campaign here. Recently, on … Continue reading Labour candidates forced to stay away or ‘rewrite the Labour manifesto’ as they face the public in hustings across Scotland