Talking-up Scotland

‘Department of Health [England] figures showed that the number of bed days accounted for by someone with a primary or secondary diagnosis of malnutrition rose from 128,361 in 2010-11, the year the coalition came to power, to 184,528 last year – a 61% rise over five years.’ (Guardian, 25^th November)

Do I know for certain that the same is not happening in Scotland? Well not 100% but only 99.9% certain, because there are no recent reports, but I’d put money on it because of three really good bits of evidence.

First, if you search the Scottish media for any combination of words suggesting malnutrition in hospitals, at any level, anywhere in Scotland, in the last ten years, you find just one story from 2015, repeated over and over across the Scottish media in a feeding-frenzy (sorry) of righteous indignation and condemnation of the Scottish Government. Here’s how the Daily Record sensitively captured it: ‘Patient left to starve for EIGHT days: Shocking discovery found during spot-check at super-hospital.’ If there was any evidence at all of a similar situation in Scotland, even another single case, you can be sure our MSM would be all over it.

Second, a proper, empirical study published in 2014 suggested that the Scottish situation was better then and that the Scottish Government was already well ahead of the game in putting further protective measures in place:

‘The overall mean prevalence of ‘malnutrition’ in patients admitted to hospitals in the UK was 29% but there was variation between the nations, with the highest in England (30%) and lowest in Scotland (24%).

‘In addition unlike the UK as a whole, and the other nations of the UK there was improvement in the proportion of hospitals with access to a Nutrition Support Team, which are important for the management of complex nutritional conditions and which were available in over 7/10 participating centres in 2011.’

‘At the start of the surveys many hospitals in Scotland had already made improvements to the organisation of nutritional care following the publication of the NHS QIS standards in 2003 so not all items were found to improve significantly during the survey period. However, there was a consistent trend towards improvements over time particularly. Unlike the rest of the UK there was a marked increase in the number of hospitals that had access to a nutritional support team. There is room for further improvement but the Scottish NSW data are very encouraging.’

Third, the English media have known about this looming crisis since long before the Guardian article today (25^th November 2016). See this from the Mail in 2010!

‘50,000 people die from malnutrition a year in NHS hospitals,’ claim Tories’

Yes, that’s the Tories blaming Labour for malnutrition. Is that funny or just a bit sickening?

See this from 2013:

Nearly 1,200 people have starved to death in NHS hospitals because ‘nurses are too busy to feed patients’

I rest my case. When BBC Scotland get wind of this they’ll………………………just ignore it.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/25/huge-rise-in-hospital-beds-in-england-taken-up-by-people-with-malnutrition

http://www.bapen.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/377-bapen-publishes-results-of-biggest-malnutrition-survey-ever-undertaken-scotland

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287332/Nearly-1-200-people-starved-death-NHS-hospitals-nurses-busy-feed-patients.html#ixzz4R2xBLSqL

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253795/50-000-people-dying-malnourished-NHS-hospitals-claim-Tories.html#ixzz4R2xzoTDy