Yesterday, we had Dani Garavelli in SoS telling us, on the basis of 5 individual ‘witnesses’, that NHS Scotland is broken. She was only the latest in a string of doomsayers desperate to prove there is a crisis and that the SNP Government is to blame for it. If an image like that above was available from any Scottish hospital, it would be everywhere from BBC Scotland to the P&J but...

There’s no sign of Professor Gibson saying that. She does seem to have said the child was: as safe in hospital as she would be outside. and that allegedly, in the words of the BBC reporter (no actual words offered): the best plan was to send her daughter to complete her treatment in Dumfries, where the family lived. What we have here, as in all of the recent BBC Scotland reporting on the...

I’d kind of given up responding to Kevin McKenna’s unconvincing hybrid support for independence, allegedly for it but hating everything the SNP do. Like Michael Fry and Iain Macwhirter, like all those big, worn, white males at the Herald and the Scotsman, who seem unable to cope with younger, more intelligent women in positions of authority, he surfaces angrily on family values,...

A heart-rending report attributing a cancer death to the effects of the pandemic on treatment. I’m in no position to comment on the case but I’m puzzled by the wider trend apparent in statistics suggesting a fall in cancer deaths and not a rise due to treatment delays. In the Scottish context responding to rumours of a ‘tsunami of cancer deaths‘ being predicted by...

In a fascinating piece of ‘thinking’ we read: Analysis by The Scottish Sun suggests just 72% of tracing was completed within the recommended three-day limit, if the unsuccessful efforts to alert infected Scots were counted. But when the 50,485 “failed cases” are stripped out, the rate since August 2020 is boosted to 80.4  per cent — just above the World Health Organisation’s...

Scotland does have less hospital beds than it had before. This is the planned result of changes to way patients are treated to reduce the risks of hospitalisation for those who can be treated in the community. From the Kings Fund in 2020 but of course missed by the SUN: Most other advanced health care systems have also reduced bed numbers in recent years. However, the UK has fewer acute beds...

In a report based pretty much on the evidence of two paramedics, named Tom and Richard by Dani Garavelli, a couple of GPs and one other, we’re told the NHS is broken. Leaving aside Garavelli’s track record, gloating with Wark in that Salmond case special, this is a terribly wee sample. Mind you, Unison found 64% saying similar things in May 2021 and they had a sample of ‘more...

114 soldiers doing non-emergency driving only, among 5 000 regular drivers who can drive on emergencies, and 2 600 volunteers already taking old folk in for non-emergency treatment. English soldiers who don’t know their way around and who struggle to communicate with the locals. An unspecified ‘more’ on the way as infection levels and hospital admissions fall. Tweet me if you see...

Dr Antonia Ho of Glasgow University does go on to offer an explanation but it’s not one Helen McCardle cares to see headlined: Note the line about vaccine passports ‘driving up vaccination.‘ Professor Linda Bauld then also suggests same. The article does not, typically, bring in the comparative data which might help explain why infection levels in the early weeks of return to...

1.8% of the total ambulance driving staff in Scotland, seen by only 2 of our 5 6000 followers and assisting a service which already has a 96% satisfaction rating, Army ambulance drivers seem to have a greater presence in BBC reports than they do on the streets. Two visits for jags to big local authority centres and a trip today for a PCR test to an airport facility of some size – not a sign...

BBC Scotland always has our back when things are getting worse but seem to forget to remind us if they improve only two days later. Some of us would like to know so that we feel less guilty going into A&E. Overall hospital admissions have been falling for five days after levelling off for the previous seven. ICU cases are down more than 20% in the last week. Hospital admissions remain steadily...

Still feasting with Anas Sarwar, on the same child death, and presumably English, soldiers coming to our rescue, BBC Scotland clings (bottom left) onto Thursday’s big Covid death total of 50. Today, they could have reported 18 deaths, the biggest fall in one day since January 2nd* and a steady fall in serious (ICU) cases over the last 7 days, from 100 to 72, a 28% fall!...

In the Telegraph yesterday from Douglas Ross: Sturgeon has given in to the drug dealers. The SNP’s de facto decriminalisation of drugs has surrendered Scotland to more misery and death. For seven years straight, drug deaths in Scotland have increased. Under the SNP, this shameful situation has spiralled out of control, leaving us with the highest death rate in all of Europe. This has...

From STV yesterday: Scotland has become the first country in the world to embed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusive-education across the school curriculum. All school staff will be given a basic awareness e-learning course on LGBT inclusive education and a toolkit of LGBT-inclusive education teaching resources. Subjects across age groups will now include LGBT identities, issues and...

In August 2021, NHS Scotland’s A&E departments saw, on average 75.45% within 4 hours. In NHS England for the same period, on average, only 66.2% were seen in 4 hours. The Scottish system is thus more than 9% better in crude terms but more accurately 14% better (9.25% of 66.2). Of the total 400 000 attending A&E in England in August, 56 000 more could have been seen within 4 hours had...

My first complaint for some time above. Their response: The headline to this article reads “Covid in Scotland: Demand for GPs ‘double’ pre-pandemic levels”, with ‘double’ presented in quote marks as you acknowledge – the use of quote marks in headlines widely established as conveying someone’s viewpoint or comment etc. The lead paragraph and article body adds the further...

Context is important ofcom.org.uk/...review.pdf The above report has a little but it’s well chosen to make the audience think things are bad, very bad: It is the largest rise in deaths announced in one day since 23 February. bbc.co.uk/...d-58684704 Is it the largest rise? It’s an increase of 13 from 37 on the...

Is that all? Non-emergency? 114 Land Rover drivers taking folk in for a hospital check-up, like the 2 600 existing local civilian volunteers who know the area, and adding nothing to the 5 000 who can do emergencies? That’ll make a big difference? Why doesn’t Reporting Scotland do a special on the local volunteers and try to encourage more to come forward and help? We asked 102 people...

An inquiry has begun, investigating the construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Campus, Glasgow, the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Edinburgh. A mass of data and numerous qualified experts’ testimonies will place heavy demands on attending journalists. They have ignored that and lazily picked out a few catchy headlines...

From Tom Gordonstoun in the Herald: NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of presiding over an “international humiliation”, after Scotland’s state-owned shipyard wasn’t deemed good enough to build state-owned ferries. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar laid the charge against the First Minister after Ferguson Marine’s bid didn’t even make the shortlist to build two new CalMac ferries last...