Talking-up Scotland

Do the BBC Scotland bosses have a date for Indyref2? They’ve launched a barrage of negative stories which could easily suggest that the people of Scotland are living in some kind of hell-hole and the SNP by implication is to blame. As in 2014, they seem to be in full propaganda mode. In particular we’ve had the extended horror story on ‘the scale’ (miniscule) of avoidable deaths in our maternity wards. Based on a tiny number of exceptional cases they have suggested, again, a crisis in NHS Scotland. I’ve written already to put this in some kind of intelligent context at:

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2016/11/22/the-power-of-early-morning-nightmares-and-expectant-mothers-bbc-scotland-callously-undermines-the-morale-of-midwives-their-patients-expectant-mothers-and-their-relatives-with-highly-selective-and/

This is some of the most disgusting propaganda I’ve ever seen. Running stories of such anxiety-inducing distortion suggests strong evidence of psychopathic tendencies in BBC Scotland’s New and Current Affairs staff. They have also mounted a campaign against the Transport Minister, Hamza Yousef, pretending they are merely reflecting the protest of opposition parties. Did none of them ever do a media studies module and learn that media representations create reality as much as they reflect it? Are we going to get a story of a miscarriage due to a delayed train? I’m only half-joking.

They’ve even turned SQA Geography into a story of failure by the Scottish Government!

What they didn’t report, last night at 6.30pm, today at 1.30pm or tonight at 6.30 pm, is this good, very good, news from the Scottish Government (ISD) website yesterday (22^nd) about NHS Scotland:

Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios

• The HSMR for Scotland has decreased by 7.0% between January to March 2014 (first quarter after new baseline) and April to June 2016.
• No hospitals had significantly higher standardised mortality ratios in April to June 2016 than the national average.
• Eight of the 29 hospitals participating in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme have shown a reduction in excess of 10% since January to March 2014

Back in August, 2016, they did slip in a wee bit of good news for NHS Scotland, to the lunchtime report, but they were too busy with bagpipes and the Celtic game to repeat it later at 6.30pm.  Jackie Bird brought us this great news:

‘Meanwhile fewer people are dying in Scotland’s hospitals. Between 2014 and this year, hospital mortality fell by 4.5% which is 3 000 fewer deaths than predicted.’

So, they managed a wee mention of a 4.5% improvement at 1.30pm but not in the main report at 6.30pm and yesterday’s 7% gets no mention at all. Yet, a report based on the distortion of a tiny number of ‘adverse events’ in maternity wards is positively drooled over.

And, you’d never know it from the broadcasts but as Shona Robison Health Secretary pointed out on their website in August:

‘Scotland was the first country in the world to implement a national patient safety programme and is the only UK country publishing and driving improvement in our NHS through the use of mortality data in this way.’

Sources:

http://www.isdscotland.org/publications/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37164244

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scottish-hospital-admission-deaths-fall-9308341