Tag: nhs

1 Comment

LATEST SHOCK: Scotland’s waiting list for heart treatment is barely half that per head of NHS England!

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson Many thanks to Dottie’s Phone for alerting me to this. The Guardian today has this shocking news: The British Heart Foundation (BHF) warns that heart care waiting lists are now at a record high, reaching 414,596 at the end of March 2024 in England, almost double what it was in 2020. In February 2024, the British Heart Foundation felt this was shocking for Scotland: Between March 2019 and September 2023, the number of people waiting for an outpatient appointment rose from 8,562 to 23,027. In the last year alone, the waiting list has grown by more than … Continue reading LATEST SHOCK: Scotland’s waiting list for heart treatment is barely half that per head of NHS England!

Leave a comment

Factcheck- 418 900 fewer staff in NHS England, ‘leading to patient deaths’, than if it were run by SNP Government!

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson In the Observer today, the above, and: Hospitals are being forced to cut medical staff, threatening their ability to care for patients, senior health leaders have warned. NHS trusts are reporting budget deficits after the chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave England’s health service £2.5bn extra funding, which only covers inflation and pay increases. The UK’s ageing population and the impact of having more than 6 million patients waiting for more than 7.5m treatments means that demand on the health service has increased substantially. https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/05/cuts-will-result-in-patient-deaths-hospitals-shed-medical-staff-after-being-told-to-balance-the-books Further staffing cuts in NHS England staffing will exacerbate an already worrying level of staffing. … Continue reading Factcheck- 418 900 fewer staff in NHS England, ‘leading to patient deaths’, than if it were run by SNP Government!

6 Comments

What BBC Scotland and the BMA Scotland were hiding from you this morning

johnrobertson834

BMA Scotland, headed up by Dr Iain Kennedy, who has now shed the union flag on his twitter account, have a piece on consultant vacancies all over the media from 06:30 this morning on BBC Scotland. They’ll have had this one oven-ready for some time now. Why today? From the real BMA in London today: The BMA England GP committee has warned health service officials that the profession is ‘now in dispute’ with NHS England following the overwhelming vote to reject the 2024/25 contract. Is the profession in dispute with NHS Scotland? The silence talks. Continue reading What BBC Scotland and the BMA Scotland were hiding from you this morning

5 Comments

Scotland’s ambulances FOUR times faster!

johnrobertson834

In the Guardian today, from Poly Toynbee, one always keen to suggest things are bad in Scotland under the SNP: Jammed 999 lines and not enough ambulances to go round: come see the sharp end of this NHS crisis There’s no mention of Scotland in the Guardian report. In January 2024, I wrote: Via the BBC’s How long do patients wait for an ambulance? app today, we can confirm that the average waiting time for a Scottish ambulance is 8 min and 46 secs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59549800 Also, from BBC UK on 14 December 2023: Average response times of more than 38 minutes for category two emergency … Continue reading Scotland’s ambulances FOUR times faster!

4 Comments

BBC Scotland’s Eva was ‘inoperable’ because of ‘nursing shortages’ caused by the demands of the private hospitals Scottish Labour must now support

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson BBC Scotland milking another sick child story again. I’m amazed Anas Sarwar is not bedside cuddling her. BBC Scotland, last year and today, pin the blame on the SNP in government with: Mr Adams had previously claimed that nursing shortages at the Edinburgh children’s hospital were contributing to some young patients waiting up to three times longer for spinal surgery than they were pre-pandemic. First, there’s no mention in their report that Scotland has far more nurses and doctors per head of population than England. In 2023, Under the SNP government, we have over 28,000 more … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s Eva was ‘inoperable’ because of ‘nursing shortages’ caused by the demands of the private hospitals Scottish Labour must now support

1 Comment

Prime Minister Sunak defends wrong NHS record

johnrobertson834

By stewartb From the BBC News website today (11 April): ‘PM defends NHS record as targets missed in England’. Today’s release of waiting times performance data for NHS England merited a high profile on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. So what have we learned? In this online BBC article we’re told: ‘The NHS recovery plan set a target for the end of March for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.’ (The target used to be 95%.) And then this: ‘.. some 74.2% of patients were seen within four hours in A&Es … Continue reading Prime Minister Sunak defends wrong NHS record

4 Comments

Elderly and frail TWICE as likely to wait more than 24 hours in A&E in England than in Scotland

johnrobertson834

No pictures of old folk required here By Professor John Robertson From the Guardian today: More than 150,000 patients had to wait a day in A&E before getting a hospital bed last year, according to new data. Freedom of information data compiled by the Liberal Democrats from 73 hospital trusts – about half the total – found that the number of patients forced to wait more than 24 hours in A&E before a bed could be found for them has increased by tenfold since 2019. The majority of those forced to wait were elderly or frail, with two-thirds of the … Continue reading Elderly and frail TWICE as likely to wait more than 24 hours in A&E in England than in Scotland

15 Comments

NHS England almost 10 times more privatised per head than NHS Scotland after 16 years of SNP protection

johnrobertson834

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ In recent years, NHS Scotland typically undertakes around 1 million procedures (operations) over the 12 months. As you might expect with 10 times the population, NHS England does around 10 million. Today in the Guardian, we can read: Private hospitals ‘cannibalising’ NHS in England by doing 10% of elective operations. Campaigners say health service cannot provide care quickly because of underinvestment, which is allowing firms to ‘make a killing’. Private hospitals performed 442,925 trauma … Continue reading NHS England almost 10 times more privatised per head than NHS Scotland after 16 years of SNP protection

8 Comments

SNP competence check – ‘England may wish to follow Scotland’s lead on preventive healthcare for under 5s’

johnrobertson834

This site costs nothing to run so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ From an article in the British Medical Journal, a remarkable report of the impact of the Scottish Government’s unique investment in health visitors, across a range of outcomes including infant survival, vaccination rates, breastfeeding, obesity, GP workload, A&E attendance levels and dental treatment. The full article is behind a paywall so unless you have access to an institutional (university, health board etc) account you may not be able to read the whole thing. It’s stunning. Here is an extract: Urgent action is needed to tackle worsening health … Continue reading SNP competence check – ‘England may wish to follow Scotland’s lead on preventive healthcare for under 5s’

10 Comments

Scotland training far far more doctors than rest of UK

johnrobertson834

This site costs nothing to run so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ Many thanks as, often before, to Dottie for alerting me to this. From the Guardian yesterday: Ministers have dramatically stalled plans to double the number of doctors being trained in England by 2031 in a move that has caused dismay across the NHS, as well in medical schools and universities, the Observer can reveal. In June last year, ministers backed a long-term plan to expand the NHS workforce and pledged, amid great fanfare, to “double medical school places by 2031 from 7,500 today to 15,000, with more medical school places in areas … Continue reading Scotland training far far more doctors than rest of UK