Tag: news

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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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Major survey today reveals Scots TWICE as satisfied with A&E and dentistry and 25% more satisfied with NHS overall than in other parts of UK- ‘Scottish’ media is all over this – kidding!

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Many thanks to NHS FOR YES! for alerting me to this. Today in the Guardian: Public satisfaction with the NHS has risen for the first time since 2019, but people remain deeply frustrated with stubbornly long waits to receive GP, A&E or hospital care. The proportion of voters in Britain satisfied with the way the NHS runs has increased from the record low of 21% seen last year to 26%. At the same time dissatisfaction with the health service fell 8% – the biggest drop since 1998 – although it remains high at 51%. Wes Streeting hailed the findings as proof that … Continue reading Major survey today reveals Scots TWICE as satisfied with A&E and dentistry and 25% more satisfied with NHS overall than in other parts of UK- ‘Scottish’ media is all over this – kidding!

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Citizens Theatre revamp only made possible by SNP Government’s £17.5 million and SNP Council’s £2 million

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BBC Scotland this morning reporting the Citizens Theatre revamp funds being made available last minute but with no time, it seems, to tell you who from. The Herald, also, making you work to find out, with: If YOU have the time, you can find, in the Herald report: The Scottish Government has signed off another multi-million pound bail-out for Glasgow’s 148-year-old Citizens Theatre to help meet the final costs of its long-delayed revamp. Ministers have approved another £3.5 million for the refurbishment, which reopened to the public last August after a seven-year closure, despite the project receiving an additional £8m from the government and … Continue reading Citizens Theatre revamp only made possible by SNP Government’s £17.5 million and SNP Council’s £2 million

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Why does an English hospital ‘indefensibly’ delaying news of a deadly Meningitis outbreak causing loss of limbs, blindness and brain injury NOT lead to calls for a health secretary or anyone to resign when in Scotland keeping details of one patient’s possible non-deadly infection confidential, did?

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Today with a photo of a nurse, BBC Health reports, the above and: The NHS waited two days before raising the alarm about the meningitis outbreak, the BBC has learnt. The UK Health Security Agency was first alerted to a case by the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, in Margate, on the afternoon of Friday 13 March. That patient arrived in hospital two days earlier but there was a delay in reporting to health officials – despite there being a legal requirement for cases to be reported immediately. It meant there was a delay in tracing close contacts of … Continue reading Why does an English hospital ‘indefensibly’ delaying news of a deadly Meningitis outbreak causing loss of limbs, blindness and brain injury NOT lead to calls for a health secretary or anyone to resign when in Scotland keeping details of one patient’s possible non-deadly infection confidential, did?

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How can there be ‘home care facing catastrophic breakdown’ in a system which actually increased the number of places available last year? 

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Today, the Herald has: Home caring services are heading towards a “catastrophic breakdown”, Scottish ministers have been told as industry leaders warn the funding deficit is becoming uncontrollable. Concerns over the sustainability of social care in Scotland have been growing in recent years, with local government body Cosla warning £750 million is needed just to stabilise the vital industry. Is there hard evidence for this claim? From Care home statistics for Scotland Support and services funded by local authorities in Scotland 2024/2025 published yesterday: During 2024/25 there were an estimated 49,605 people who resided in a care home and were fully or partially … Continue reading How can there be ‘home care facing catastrophic breakdown’ in a system which actually increased the number of places available last year? 

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BBC Reporting Scotland Down, todays latest lie – Prisons inspector did not say ‘urgent’ actions needed in a system already 53% better staffed

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facing people being held in young offender institutions. BBC Reporting Scotland in their BBC Breakfast inserts, today, repeatedly. What are the risks of? Suicide. What is the evidence? Two suicides in 2018. ‘Urgent action‘ still required after 8 years? No, the full BBC Scotland website report does not feature the word ‘urgent‘ at all. The Reporting Scotland Down editor has agreed that for effect – misrepresentation. What does the full BBC Scotland online report head off with? Inspectors find partial progress after young inmate suicides at Polmont – A follow-up inspection of a young offenders institution, ordered after the suicides … Continue reading BBC Reporting Scotland Down, todays latest lie – Prisons inspector did not say ‘urgent’ actions needed in a system already 53% better staffed

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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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Understanding Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 1 – In the murderous first phase of the pandemic, they were 21% lower than in England & Wales

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In the Guardian 19th July 2020, six months after Boris Johnson’s incompetence and callousness allowed the virus free access t the UK and just over three months since the SNP Government got devolved authority for the pandemic tactics, here is what happened to care home residents. In a piece broadly sympathetic to the First Minister and Scotland’s Covid strategy, the Guardian writers seemed to feel the need for ‘balance’ and to use anything they can find even if it’s wrong. Truth, fairness and accuracy are what readers need. You wouldn’t expect to have balance on a piece about the health … Continue reading Understanding Covid deaths in care homes in Scotland 1 – In the murderous first phase of the pandemic, they were 21% lower than in England & Wales

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Why did cancer mortality drop in the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022 if the Daily Record’s contrary claims are true?

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The Daily Record today, has: Cancelled cancer appointments during Covid led to ‘loss of life in Scotland’ – Pausing bowel cancer screening appointments in Scotland during Covid-19 led to missed and late diagnoses, longer waits for colorectal cancer treatment and ultimately loss of life, an inquiry heard. The UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry’ has heard how millions of people had non-urgent operations cancelled during the pandemic. The claim comes from, as far as I can see, no actual figures, but just the views of the Chair, Baroness Heather Hallett when she said: The lack of screening for colorectal cancer, for example, led to missed and … Continue reading Why did cancer mortality drop in the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022 if the Daily Record’s contrary claims are true?

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Guardian’s Scotland Editor platforms Holyrood’s third party as the main and only opposition to Reform UK when polls make it clear the SNP is that

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Severin Carrell, the Guardian‘s ‘Scotland Editor‘ has this today: Reform UK has suspended one of its Scottish candidates after it emerged he had been struck off as a company director, and the party faces growing attacks for fielding candidates making Islamophobic remarks. Reform confirmed on Friday morning it had suspended Stuart Niven, its candidate for Dundee City West, after the Herald revealed he had been struck off after diverting tens of thousands of pounds of Covid grants into his personal account. Several hours after that admission, claims within Reform’s Scottish manifesto that it could save billions of pounds in Holyrood spending were … Continue reading Guardian’s Scotland Editor platforms Holyrood’s third party as the main and only opposition to Reform UK when polls make it clear the SNP is that