The curse of life
The Scottish media has really had to scrape the barrel to give a negative spin to some NHS stats today. The Herald, Daily Mail, Daily Record and Scotsman all feature a story concerning an increase in ambulance waiting times, noting that the number of callouts taking more than ten minutes has doubled in four years.
What they’re a lot more reluctant to reveal is that the reason for that is a deliberate policy change which has meant ambulances have been saving more people’s lives.
Buried at the end of the articles is a quote from the Scottish Ambulance Service noting that halfway through that four-year period it implemented a new protocol prioritising patients in the most urgent need.
People with cardiac arrest, for example, for whose survival every second counts, are now attended faster than people being taken to hospital to have an ingrown toenail treated, with the result that dozens of additional lives were saved last year while almost everyone (96%) still got an ambulance within 20 minutes, even for trivial cases where the service is in effect being deployed as a glorified taxi.
So in short, then: a policy designed to save lives has succeeded in its aims, Scottish Labour are furious about it (because there’s nothing they love more than being able to parade a poor bereaved widow at First Minister’s Questions), and the Scottish press dutifully whips their press release up into a scandal to try to terrify their elderly readers.
Welcome to Monday-morning business as usual, folks.
And they wonder why i have no time for people.
Some of our species …
With these twisted stats, they out-do themselves.
For the Unionist media-
no cloud has a silver lining-
rainbows are black and white-
and tomorrow, if you live that long-
won’t be as good as yesterday.
Call Scottish Labour an ambulance!
I guess none of these papers have had an “Effie Deans” moment… Too much to hope for, eh, even if it is just for one article?
Oh lord. Undermining trust in our services. That will never end well.
Way to go meeja (slow hand clap).
Scottish opposition are now the latter day Ambulance chasers.
The free press in Scotland. Free to produce propaganda on behalf of a foreign country.
The media in Scotland stinks. It stinks of colonialism.
If only the waiting times between these ‘shocking’ #SNPbad NHS stories had increased substantially instead. Might save people from having heart attacks in the first place.
Herald, Mail, Hootsmon, Slab etc. Pretty sure “Ya Daftie and What’s the Point of Rennie” will be involved along the sorry way.
Sums up the desperation of the Unionists attempts at doing anything.
Says it all really.
Plus ca change … Scottish media and ‘Scottish ‘ Labour .
…’Scottish Labour are furious about it (because there’s nothing they love more than being able to parade a poor bereaved widow at First Minister’s Questions), and the Scottish press dutifully whips their press release up into a scandal to try to terrify their elderly readers.’
Oh well maybe the SNP should think of adopting the Labour Party’s policy in Wales or the Tories in England.
Forget about waiting times doubling to 20 minutes. Try 24 hours to two and a half days for the so-called less serious cases.
‘The NHS ambulance trusts said the longest waits were for “less serious calls” and that they had to prioritise people in life-threatening or urgent conditions.’
link to independent.co.uk
And they wonder why their sales in Scotland are plummeting!
More britnat lies and desperation. It’s chronic.
And the other thing they don’t tell you is that this policy can have some unexpected positive outcomes for other patients.
My late mother was helped in gaining more appropriate accommodation when she left hospital simply because the ambulance protocol would have resulted in her having to wait too long if she were unable to climb the stairs to her door for any reason.
Balanced reporting my a**se. The only “fears” I’m seeing are the ones in the eyes of the journalists and Britnats.
They know that the NHS is close to everyone’s hearts, no pun intended, so the Britnats come out with lie after lie after lie about Scotland’s NHS. Maybe they should turn their attention to Wales’ NHS, under the control of the Labour party.
Oh and I know someone who was in need of non urgent treatment recently, but best treated within a certain amount of hours, living 30 miles away from a hospital. The Edinburgh hospital sent them a taxi, middle of the night, and sent them home in a taxi, same night.
I suppose the question might be is, why does East Lothian not have it’s own hospital? Why did the Britnats never build more hospitals in rural areas in Scotland.
Before the SNP were voted in at Holyrood, the Labour party were all set to close down Edinburgh’s Western General. They had started to remove services and of course closed A&E quick as a flash. It looked shabby as well. It has since been expanded by the SNP, and is a major cancer and research hospital.
Can’t imagine what Edinburgh would do with only one main hospital, the ERI, which was not even built ( with Labour’s PFI leaving the city in massive debt) to cater for Edinburgh’s population, nevermind outlying areas! It does not bare thinking about, it really doesn’t.
To score cheap political points they attack hard working caring individuals whose job is to save lives.
The best of humanity brought face to face with the lowest of the low.
This all has to stop, and soon.
I suppose the BBC will be all over this as well.I wonder what the crews would do and say to these reporters if any of them need an ambulance,the crews must be heart sick of these stories these reporters may need the help of them at some point so they should be more respectful of to them
Meanwhile in the sunny uplands that are England and Wales this happens:
link to independent.co.uk
The story appeared in the last week or so which usually triggers our home grown MSM to go grubbing around for stories in a similar vein in Scotland. But they really had to spin furiously to turn this into BHS Scotland baad
Apart from the increasingly unsophisticated efforts of the Scottish media to do down Scotland at every opportunity, this story reveals the inadequacy of statistics when it comes to measuring performance. Suppose the ambulance service were now to revert to the old protocol for deploying ambulances. Presumably the number of people waiting more than 10 minutes for an ambulance would half. So it could then be said that this was a great success. Except that now more people would die because ambulances would be carrying patients with in-growing toenails rather than people suffering cardiac arrest. There is a risk that the target for reaching a patient within 10 minutes will drive behaviours and actions that are not what we want.
Beware targets, key performance indicators and all other statistical measures if you are trying to assess how well an organisation is carrying out its role. We cannot abandon these measures completely, but we should be very careful about setting policy based on them.
The Scottish press (inc. bbc & stv) are in the pockets of the british establishment. Scotaland in general and the independence movement specifically will never get a fair hearing or expect it to tell the truth.
All we can do is not to contribute to its coffers and challenge it at every opportunity!
Another day another twist from the MSM.
link to scottishamb-newsroom.prgloo.com
Wont archive but worth a read.
A frail elderly neighbour fell late on Saturday evening. Another neighbour called 999. An ambulance was there within minutes. In spite of it being at peak pub emptying time.
The two paramedics were excellent, confidently sympathetic, and they stayed with the neighbour for about an hour to make sure she was ok.
Knocking NHS Scotland only serves to criticise the wonderful people who work at the sharp end, often being subject to verbal and physical abuse while doing the great job that they do.
I was going to say that newspapers, etc, should know better, but of course they do. It’s their tax-exile-billionaire owners who demand that editors do everything possible to denigrate the likes of the NHS so that their various interests can get involved in lucrative privatisations, only to dump them when they no longer pay, like care homes.
Why don’t they just come out with it and say they would prefer thousands to die through lack of services in order to make a political point.
They have lost their minds,their soul, but most importantly their humanity.
The free taxis:
I live in an area that sees ambulances regularly picking up and dropping off elderly folk from their hospital or clinic visits, some of these clinic visits are less than ten minutes away so that as you can imagine is a lot of ambulances
Now I’m pretty lucky healthwise most of my parts are still functioning so I can get around fine even though I am of a similar age to many who use this vital service, but there is an abuse of this system of care by many of the users who are quite capable as I am to take the free bus or indeed travel by car which one or two of these users actually have but choose to go by ambulance for the company and conversation then complain about that SNP and Nicola Sturgeon if the ambulance is 5 minutes late because it had to go and deal with a more acute problem somewhere else
Just because it’s your right to have a service does’nt mean you’re always right to demand it serves you on demand
This happens with every SNP/Scotland Bad story.
There is never any comparison shown between Scotland and the other Nations of the UK.
Because in the majority of cases Scotland has the best run Public Services within the UK.
96% within 20 mins. is pretty good. I doubt that they could improve much on that.
If I called an ambulance and the nearest one was available it is very unlikely (nr. impossible) for it to reach me within 20mins. 25 maybe, in winter and good weather.
Shocking Labour analyses will concern people. Labour Press releases.
You have 6 minutes after suffering a Sudden Cardiac Arrest to have your heart defibrillated or you will be brain dead,
can be longer with good Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)which keeps the oxygenated blood flowing round your system,
these both can be administered by ambulance crews,
a heart attack is generally not fatal (but can bring on a CA if major artery in heart is blocked)
and apart from taking you to hospital there is not much an ambulance crew will be able to do,
95% of cardiac arrests are fatal, (100% without Defibrillation),
heart attacks are `generally` not fatal,
so if an ambulance gets a call from CA or HA it must prioritise the CA over the HA and the HA might have to wait but the CA will be dead if they wait,
seeing both within 10 mins might keep the figures/stats looking good but the CA will be dead.
Have had CA and HA so know a bit about it.
Is this for real. Many people will live more than twenty minutes away from a hospital. Emergency vehicles get there quicker and are saving more lives. A better policy. A better service.
Do I recall early 2017 and also repeating this year, the ‘Christmas box” press releases from political parties (read primarily Labour) were to be staggered throughout the year rather than a ‘cherry-pick for January?.
I’m sure someone posted a list of this years ’embargoed’ stories to be run sequentially. The usual suspects.. Police, Rail, SNHS. I followed the timetable as it appeared in the Scottish press for a short while (it was unnerringly accurate)
I’m positive the ambulance service and Fire Brigade were sequential stories yet to be run, but damned if I can find the list. Anyone?
I have to say this is a very British way of publishing distortions as facts.
More signs that Scots are served by a ‘foreign owned’ press core key to the survival of the British state. Also this ideology, does it come from training such as higher education or prep for working life in that industry or is it just ‘the selling of ones soul’ in order to make a buck in Britain ?
Jings! Was on Big Auntie’s Health page there and….
Patient waited 62 hours for ambulance
link to archive.is
Survival rates for cardiac arrest have doubled but we won’t hear this on BBC. See-
link to thoughtcontrolscotland.com
New Scottish ambulance call-out system doubles survival rates for heart attack patients but is deliberately misreported by ‘ambulance chasers’
August 27, 2018johnrobertson834
As you can see from the above, our Unionist media have chased the story, drooling and sniffing for blood. They have distorted the evidence in their usual attempt to frighten the sick and the elderly into that generalised fear of change which they hope translates into a vote to remain in the heartless bosom of Theresa May’s UK.
A new system of prioritising the sickest patients, even though that may lengthen waits for less urgent cases, has massively improved survival rates for cardiac arrest patients. According to a spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service:
‘We have changed the way we respond to calls and are now deliberately prioritising the sickest, most seriously ill patients in Scotland. As a result, we have almost doubled survival rates for cardiac arrest patients since 2013. For less urgent cases, our call handlers now spend more time understanding patient’s clinical needs to ensure we send the right, not necessarily the nearest resource. The result has been slightly longer response times for patients whose lives are not immediately at risk – but consequently, last year we saved the lives of an additional 62 patients who had suffered an out of hospital cardiac arrest.’
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: ‘We’re all in the gutter but our journos are happy face-down and sniffing the British stench.’
Rebuttal Reinforces Opinions.
Many of us btl say we want false MSM stories rebutted – usually by SNP/Scottish Government.
BUT the article in August’s iScot by Bill Dale states that even a factual rebuttal merely reinforces the “false” opinion in someone’s head.
He says NEVER deny or repeat the “false” story because the repetition fixes the falsehood in the listener’s brain – literally it is a physical reinforcement [neurones are added].
So the SNP has been wiser than us when they say nothing at all. The way to argue is to present a fresh story and repeat that.
Ken McDonald allowed our local group to post the article on our FB, so long as we credited iScot.
BREAKING from Pravda Quay
with Union Jackie Kim Ono:
In addition to the 4-wheeled ambulances, we also have the faster 2-wheeled paramedic bikers who are able to cut thru traffic and tight spaces to provide assistance for people having the likes of a heart attack or other emergency.
Also good that there are AED defibrillators dotted around our cities and villages for use in emergency too. All it needs is trained persons to operate.
OT thanks for dropping Danny, his comments became a bit ‘too aggressive’ to other Wingers when challenged.
Aye, monday-morning, business as usual, as ye were.
Drink water to maintain hydration (it may save ye from fallin’ down.)
Thought I’d venture onto the Hootsmon’s site (yes I Know).
Advert-ridden snail’s-pace loading, gave up trying to find the ambulance story.
Clicked on one of their multiple ‘Brexit may lead to Indy’ articles. Wondered if the quality of the comments have improved lately (600+ comments!).
The answer, you’ll have guessed is a Big “No”.
Just a big room mainly full of Wallopers all agreeing with themselves. Lies, misrepresentation, name-calling and slander. Same as per usual. How this paper hasn’t folded yet is a mystery.
And what’s with the “Sturgeonista or Salmondista” shite? Yoons be a bunch of Loonies…
I have to say our experience is quite at odds. We have on occasion called emergency ambulances for sepsis, stroke, MI and once for possible meningitis. Never have we waited less than 30 minutes, often over an hour. We’re in urban Glasgow.
More worrying from our point of view is the number of patients who are gravely ill and call an ambulance, only for the paramedic to give them leading questions like “you dont want to go to hospital do you?” which often leads to one of us going out later on and arranging admission. The delay can be costly.
I understand why they do it- if they don’t take the patient to hospital they don;t need to wait to hand the patient over (so they can respond to more calls). But it serves nobody well.
I’m sure the SAS is performing better than many regions, but there are significant problems with it and I have grave concerns about how it operates.
To any readers here – both new and long standing – who work in the NHS in any capacity – thank you from me and my family for everything you’ve done and continue to do.
It’s time to charge those “journalists” with terrorism.
Because that’s what they’re doing.
The scale of the propaganda went from untruths to outright lies, to denial of the truth, to the fabrication of an entirely alternate reality, straight into terrorism.
Scaremongering is another term for terrorism.
Scare = terror.
Let’s take them down, Rev.
Ask for money if required: a free and independent Scotland must rid of terrorists.
@mumsyhugs
Well said and couldn’t agree more.
Scotland is too wee, too poor and too stupid for there to be any good news about it, ever.
In the unlikely and near unprecedented event of something good happening in Scotland, Labour and the “Scottish” press will do their utmost to present that good news as bad news directly attributable to failings of the SNP.
On the very rare occasion when circumstances unhelpfully contrive to make it impossible to deny the existence of a good news story, Labour will claim that it was their idea all along and absolutely nothing to do with good management or planning by the SNP/Green government. The media will faithfully repeat the resulting Labour press release.
#call me Dave @ 12:24pm
The patient who waited 62 hours for an ambulance lived in Wales.
link to independent.co.uk
Artyhetty @ 11.27 am
East Lothian is getting a new Community Hospital in Haddington which will combine the services of the two existing hospitals in Haddington and bring additional services back to Haddington.
The hospital is currently under construction but some parts are already open. Should be fully open next year.
link to nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
It is not, of course, being built as a result of Unionist largesse and forward planning. Almost goes without saying doesn’t it?
It will be a real asset to the community and surrounding area giving them up to date facilities rather than 2 aged hospitals.
Hundreds of houses being built in Haddington at the moment so a timely upgrade to the facilities.
The Scottish Government, what are they like? They do it deliberately you know..wee smiley thing.
People working in the SNHS must love it when the britnat media berates them.
FWIW the ambulance service where I am is excellent.
Our MSM never measure Outcomes just Inputs
That way they can spin the anti SNP story
CMD’s linky above…
call me dave says:
27 August, 2018 at 11:45 am
Another day another twist from the MSM.
link to scottishamb-newsroom.prgloo.com
Wont archive but worth a read.
… says the Scottish system is similar to the one in Wales. Did ScotLab pressbomb this story?
Given these are failing organs of the press perhaps they feel they should have the ambulance service’s undivided attention 🙂
Not a surprising spin. It would be useful to know if there has been a measurable increase in survival rates etc. Does anyone know if that info is available?
Respect to you, Stu
Can’t be easy wading through this vomit on a daily basis
@ scunner – “Sturgeonistas” is not the first time I’ve heard the term used.
The British Army, during a recent training exercise, labelled “insurgents” with the term
On a positive note, all those people who work in the NHS must increasingly see right through this constant misrepresentation of their hard work and dedication. It’s constant.
That’s a lot of people waking up to just how Unionist the media agenda is.
Why I don’t buy or read many newspapers now. I have been know to on occasion still read the guardian or Independent but selectively.
We must keep challenging this like You do Stu.
Attacks from all British Nationalist parties on the SNP by whatever means has been happening since 2012 and hasn’t stopped. It will get worse because lying, spinning is all the BritNats have left.
Today I got a leaflet, from Scotland in Union, pushed through my door! They are telling folk to join and tell Nicola Sturgeon that Scotland doesn’t want another referendum for Independence and to get back to the day job. The Tories are already campaigning in other districts.
General Election in November after details of Brexit? Seems likely to me.
Hello! Scottish Labour and fellow Unionists. Hello!
I work in the NHS.
We don’t believe you, and all that happens is that we talk to each other and spread it around that Labour, the MSM, the BBC are all liars.
Keep it up, you’re making it easy.
@mr thms
Aye I know. You didn’t think I was pointing at Scotland.
But I see the picture and tables didn’t show on archiving. 🙁
However the table is on Rev’s twitter I see.
PS:
Made a point of catching shortbread tv news there and no mention of anything fishy sounding at all. But pineapples are in the news. 🙂
A couple of years ago the GDoc service in Glasgow would send out a car immediately with a Doc? to take patients to a 24 hours clinic. People could not go themselves. It was not needed but was extremely impressive.
Anyone can get an emergency appointment by phoning before nine.
There can be a problem at New Year time to access for non emergencies. The Surgeries are closed from Christmas to after New Year, without emergency services. Surely they could provide some emergencies cover. People end up in A&E. GDocs was established to provide the cover but they can be overwhelmed at that time. The SNHS is great and could be even better without Westminster gross interference in Scotland’s budget and economic policies.
It must be morale sapping for our emergency workers at the sharp end to have their really good work misrepresented and made to look crap by SLAB and the papers.
BritNat Media coordinating their attacks ma Bullshit antenna at the maximum height ( beware low flying aircraft ) lol
BTW you will get triaged according to urgent need at A&E as well which is how it should be. Remember next time you are kept waiting for a minor ailment.
Last we were at A&E my wife got an eye infection which swelled her eye and glued the lid shut. Discovered on a Sunday morning. So off to Ninewells we went. The receptionist took one look and agreed we were there legitimately. She was nurse triaged and it didn’t take long after that even though Saturday night’s casualties were still trickling in.
Re: Legerwood@12.50
Ah that’s good to know thanks LW. I thought there must be a wee hospital in E.Lothian, looks like the SNP are improving things there as well. Will have a look at the article.
I know that the new hospital in Ayrshire, (Ayr?) was built using NPI, I think meaning, Not for Profit Initiative, though using private companies as I don’t think there was much choice regards that. So, while not ideal, not landing the council in huge debt like Labour’s PFI scheme has done all over Scotland.
Labour, never knowingly building or managing services and infrastructure in the interests of Scotland.
It’s the Trade Unions who should be clarifying these accusations against staff and (rolled-out-with-their-blessing) improvements.
Oh I forgot, they’re only on their member’s/staff/SNHS side during consultations. The Union’s are then oddly silent when a twisted statistic can be flung at the SNP and NHS staff.
Martin @ 12:33,
You don’t say who “we” are, but supposing you’re part of a medical practice with some understanding of degrees of urgency when you make callouts, don’t you find it disturbing that any genuine concerns about performance may easily be getting drowned out by insidious political posturing and adult comics constantly “crying wolf”?
In what way does media whipping-up “fear” (as Stu’s headline example shows) help, exactly?
Better surely to have independence, get this finally behind us, then we’ll have a decent chance to properly and calmly assess what’s good and what needs improving, with a full gamut of government resources available and without all this relentless BritNat fear-mongering to distract?
Each one of these media moans is one more proof (if proof were still needed) that mitigation will never ever be good enough.
“Ken500 says:
27 August, 2018 at 1:42 pm
There can be a problem at New Year time to access for non emergencies. The Surgeries are closed from Christmas to after New Year, without emergency services.”
Hi Ken,
We’re all open (or should be) between Christmas and New Year. This year, for example, we will be closed Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th December and Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd January only.
Hope that clears things up.
Seven comments in The Scotsman on the “increased ambulance waiting times” article, all saying it’s a beneficial change (and so disagreeing with the false editorial spin). So some readers have heads on their shoulders.
By contrast, SEVEN HUNDRED comments on Mike Russell’s claim that indyref2 is coming, all spitting venom and saying it’ll never happen – but no sign of an argument for the benefits of union.
They get really scared when they’ve no data on their side, and rightly so! We need to capitalise on this. Let’s just keep on hitting them with facts.
Robert J. Sutherland @1429
Hi Robert,
Yes I’m a GP and we are well aware of the grading of ambulances, and the minimal resemblance to the real time that these turn up. I must say though that if I order a 4 hour ambulance for something I’m not worried about significant deterioration in the next couple of days so a 2-3h delay doesn’t bother me. I do wonder how many of these “long waits” fall into this category and are thus not a problem at all.
Of course I’m worried about genuine concerns being drowned out, especially when the exaggerations are repackaged to be even more awful by the time Labour get someone to spout on BBC. We also need to remember that there are lots of people calling ambulances unnecessarily for all manner of reasons, which puts pressure on the service and affects performance.
Whilst I am a long time supporter of Indy I don’t think we can pretend the SAS isn’t wthout its flaws. I want a better service in a better Scotland and sometimes that means accepting there are things we can improve. Admittedly if like in the rUK our emergency services were VAT exempt we could probably fund better services…
You can almost smell and taste the glee that the onion press feel when they write these articles.
Anything they can think of to help their precious union.
Only trouble is, 5 minutes after publishing there lies (by omission), they are taken to task and should be utterly embarassed by someone that knows what they are talking about.
Unfortunately, they have no shame.
let no one doubt that you do a very fine job , Mr Campbell.
Yeah a great big thank you to all who work for the SNHS. You’re doing an absolutely amazing job.
And commiserations to the newspaper industry that’s currently watching their sales going down the stank. Has it dawned on you yet that there are hundreds of thousands of SNHS employees, with relatives and friends in greater numbers plus the patients themselves who all know that you’re spouting a load of old guff. You know the very people you rely on to buy newspapers. Wakey, wakey time.
The best performing nhs on these islands just got better. Lets twist it to a bad story says the unionist media and political parties.
What a shower of disgraceful charlatans.
Scottish NHS is the best in the UK and they are doing it deliberately.
The MSM and Labour are clearly Scottish non patriots.
@ Kenny 1.11
If you follow the link
@ SOG 12.56 you will find some information including this last sentence.
“Our improved approach to prioritising immediately life threatening cases, such as those in cardiac arrest, led to an additional 62 people suffering cardiac arrest returning home to their families in 2016/17 compared to the previous year”.
Hope this helps.
Labour currently seeking ingrown toenail victims to attend Holyrood gallery for Richard to wave towards in his opening speech of new session….”How dare the FM put them behind a cardiac arrest patient..!”
Martin @ 12.33
What was SAS’ responses to your complaints re waiting times for your sepsis, M.I., CVA and possible meningitis patients?
5 years ago I phoned at 8-30 am for an appointment with a doctor, the receptionist asked what was the symptoms, I said I had a chest infection and said it was painful to cough. The receptionist then said she would send an ambulance. I said I would be down in the car, she said it’s to take you to the hospital. It arrived within 10 minutes. I was put in the ambulance and given an E.C.G. and then taken to the hospital. At the hospital, I was checked by a doctor, given another E.C.G. and other tests I told the doctor I had been given an E.C.G., That was to see if it was very serious And had to go to Edinburgh or the local hospital. Terrific service. I am now 87.
Sarah at 12.27pm
Exactly.I have been trying to get this point over for a long time. Giving oxygen to attacks on us by trying to rebut them when our opponents own the media is a bad move.
Putting out good news is a good move.
Legerwood
link to independent.co.uk
The Welsh Ambulance Service recorded the longest delays, taking more than 50 hours to respond to 999 calls on four occasions between June 2017 and June 2018, figures show.
One patient waited for 62 hours, according to data obtained by the BBC through a freedom of information request.
So Labour’s North Accounting Unit are demanding the SNP Government must make the Scottish Ambulance Service as inefficient as the Labour run Welsh Ambulance Service.
Who Would you vote in an incompetent party who have a long and proven track record of being a disaster at all things NHS?
Well other than blind Labour supporters and Unionist.
This absolute shite really really annoys me , I am one of these elderly gits that these DELIBERATE LYING , MISINFORMING AND SCAREMONGERING TWATS are attempting to paint our respected hard working medical services as incompetent and incapable of providing adequate medical attention .
Unfortunately for them I have had a few occasions where I had to require use of medical facilities and I can categorically reassure anyone who is concerned at these spurious allegations that they are indeed lying and exaggerating .
I can also categorically claim and assert that the service and attention I have received from ALL medical services since the SNP SG took over health provision has been exemplary compared to when Labour were responsible for that provision
Instead of these people berating and denigrating our health services they should be celebrating , congratulating and thanking the hard work and dedication of our health workers
These people should not be used as political pawns by shallow political parties and lying reprehensible broadcasters and media
Ongoing demands on healthcare in Scotland from a changing demography ( increasing % of older people ,increasing numbers of long term conditions ) patient centred medicine and social accountability ( whilst controlling overconsumption of resource and the temptation to over investigate) are common to all western cultures and means that the system needs to evolve and adapt .It is easy to criticise any large organisation providing such complex services when there are many challenges.
The divergence of healthcare provision between Scotland and England means that we are no longer speaking about the same system.
The decision to keep Scotland’s NHS fully nationalised is a political decision based on adherence to its founding principles. That should be celebrated.
@Dave McEwan Hill 8.19. I’m pleased to hear your response. I thought my post must be in a parallel universe! Does it warrant repeating on the new thread, do you think?
Bill Purves @ 7.09 yesterday..
You’re story is exactly what we’re talking about Bill..
My mum is in her 80’s too… She has a complex health history.
Her Doctor’s make a judgement call…
They really don’t mess about (as it should be for our seniors),, her ambulance times vary… But they are always proportionate to what is going on with her..
How are we ever to judge how to find area’s of improvement when we cannot trust our media…. ??
They have much to answer for… Stay well Bill. X