MSP "weaponising" the NHS for political gain?

[Who Knows]

Is our MSP copying the UK Labour Party in “weaponising” the NHS as an election issue with several recent press releases on the NHS here in Shetland?

 

I hope though his understanding and use of statistics are better than the aforementioned Labour Party who embarrassingly had to withdraw.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/17/scottish-labour-leader-deletes-youtube-video-nhs-stats-wronghttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/17/scottish-labour-leader-deletes-youtube-video-nhs-stats-wrong

 

The Scottish Ambulance Service in Shetland was a recent target concerning 45% increase in activity between 2006 and currently and the Montfield base.

 

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/10191-msp-ambulance-staff-face-lamentable-conditions

 

Now NHS statistics transparency was the watch word at Holyrood recently but unfortunately the underlying statistics was not included in the press release and ISD website were NHS statistics are produced I could not find ambulance data so have had to use Accident and Emergency figures as a proxy.

 

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/Emergency-Department-Activity/Statistics/

 

Well in 2006-07 there were 8,474 attendances and in 2013-14, the last completed year of available data there were 8,393 attendances. So although slightly down by 1% between the two years it would be fairer to say there is no significant movement between years.

 

Incidentally it would appear staff at the Gilbert Bain Hospital are doing reasonably well in treating people at A&E within 4 hours against the 98% target and should be congratulated by all for their efforts.

 

Now it is fair to say that there is no doubt investment in the local ambulance service would be welcome it is not fair to say as the press release implies there has been no investment locally since 2006 because there has been investment locally.

 

In Lerwick the number of emergency ambulances was increased from one to two with the necessary additional staff to make this possible.

 

http://www.shb.scot.nhs.uk/board/meetings/2010/20100322-2010-15.pdf

 

Investment by SAS has not been restricted to Lerwick and the mainland with investment in the air service supporting the islands and working with the islanders.      

 

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2013/02/12/illuminated-landing-sites-improve-outer-isles-air-ambulance-service

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18395315

 

Investment in land ambulance on the smaller islands has taken place with new ambulances for Skerries and Fetlar

 

http://www.scottishambulance.com/newsDesk/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=86

 

What is sure though is that both the permanent and volunteer staff with SAS all deserves our gratitude to for the work they do on our behalf.

[MuckleJoannie]

The NHS has been a political football for most of its life.

[brian.smith]

aye Joannie and many an own goal has been scored with it

[Who Knows]

The baton, at least for the time of the General Election although a reserved matter to Holyrood, has been passed from our MSP to his colleague defending a large Westminster parliamentary majority.

 

In the publication “Island Life” spring edition, Alistair Carmichael MP and Secretary of State for Scotland highlights the issue of GP Dispensing and the loss of dispensing service at the Scalloway practice.

 

This is all about the subject of control of entry for pharmacy services which as a devolved matter sits at Holyrood rather than Westminster.

Now glossing over the fact that the Pharmacy Control of entry regulations that applied at the time of the Scalloway Pharmacy applications related to legislation passed by the Labour/Lib Dem coalition that governed Scotland for eight years and a Lib Dem island MSP was on the relevant committee you would of thought that the Secretary of State for Scotland would have been fully aware of a Scotland wide public consultation on this specific issue in December 2013.

 

http://www.nls.uk/scotgov/2013/9781784121594.pdf

 

That the consultation was warmly welcome by both the GP and pharmacy community in Scotland and new regulations have already been passed that change the rules in May 2014.

 

http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/News-scrutiny-for-pharmacy-applications-cfa.aspx

 

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0044/00446346.pdf   Dispensing Doctors consultation response

 

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0044/00446357.pdf   Royal College of GPs consultation response

 

Now last year was a busy year for politician and taking the eye of the ball on important local issues is something the Liberal Democrats would never accuse other parties of doing?

 

Finally with respect to Scalloway practice I am sure welcoming the investment by the Health Board in the new £2 million surgery due to open shortly was a just a minor omission from the publication. 

[Who Knows]

Being out of touch on dispensing in NHS Scotland was not the only Health issue the Lib Dems erred on in their publication “Island Life” spring edition.

 

Alistair Carmichael wants to ensure “the standards of care need to be the same for someone suffering from a mental illness as suffering from a physical ailment”

 

This is certainly a sentiment that we can all sign up to and support irrespective of political hue.

 

However the issue being referred to and requiring to be addressed is an NHS England one.

 

The NHS in Scotland legislative basis is the National Health Service Scotland Act 1978 which is very clear on this issue in the first section of the Act

“1. General Duty of Secretary of State

 

(1) It shall continue to be the Secretary of State to promote in Scotland a comprehensive and integrated health service designed to secure -

i ) Improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland and

ii) The prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/29/section/1

 

Shetland Health Board work in partnership with Mind your Head, there is a link on the Board’s website main page, GP practices and other partners in relation to supporting people to manage mental illness.

 

http://www.shb.scot.nhs.uk/

 

Again the article fails to recognise and welcome recent and planned local investment in Mental Health Services that includes in 2014/15 commitment to fund increasing the number of Consultant Posts by 1wte, increasing the number of Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPN) by 1wte in a move to have an operational 24/7 CPN service and will also get a share of new £5 million investment fund announced in November 2014 to invest in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) from 2015/16. All of these are aimed at the mental health services in Shetland are more robust and sustainable to address this important objectives of the sentiment.

 

http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Mental-health-investment-127a.aspx

Edited May 5, 2015 by Who Knows

[George.]

Being out of touch on dispensing in NHS Scotland was not the only Health issue the Lib Dems erred on in their publication “Island Life” spring edition.

 

Alistair Carmichael wants to ensure “the standards of care need to be the same for someone suffering from a mental illness as suffering from a physical ailment”

 

This is certainly a sentiment that we can all sign up to and support irrespective of political hue.

 

However the issue being referred to and requiring to be addressed is an NHS England one.

 

Yet another reason to ask why Alistair Carmichael has survived for so long as M.P for Shetland and Orkney while doing so little for the people who keep him voted in - for no justifiable reason - when he does absolutely nothing for those around him, the people that keep voting Lib Dem, purely because it's a habit, and providing him with a very comfortable little earner.

 

The Liberal Party, now the Lib Dem crowd, have done a good job of proving themselves to be nothing more than history. Vote SNP tomorrow. 

[Urabug]

Will the SNP still have as many followers in 5yrs time!

 

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence---until you get there.

 

Will our pockets be full of gold soon.

 

No i'm not such an idiot to beleive all these promises. 

 

The NHS can only exist and improve if the nation is doing well and everyone is paying enough tax to enable it to do so. 

 

It is all about money and probably more important where that money comes from.

 

Borrow borrow borrow is that the answer!

Edited May 6, 2015 by Urabug

[Ghostrider]

No government yet has proven itself of capable of running a piss up in a brewery, so why folk expect them to run a national health service beggars belief.

 

The sooner all health service delivery is in the hands of commercial operations, directly paid for by the end user in cases where those folk can afford it, and paid for out of general taxation for folks who can't, and the National Insurance myth and farce is abolished the better it will be for everyone.

 

The less government interference in anything, the better it works.

[Ghostrider]

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence....

 

....because its been fertilised with bullshyte.

 

Especially, where politicians walk, regardless of their persuasion.

[Urabug]

A national health service free to all,paid for by the state who gets the money from the taxes we all should be able to pay, because we all want to work hard and earn big wages.

 

That is the plan is it not,but in reality many are unable to work becase they cannot there is no job for them,or for health reasons they are unable to work,then some will not work anyway ,then those who are unemployable through drink/drugs ,criminal records ect.

 

But the state must provide for us all.treat us all as equals.

 

The lazy drunken criminal druggie who could work but will not work because no one wants him/her --are they the ones who cause this  austerity we hear so much about .  

 

I do not want to pay taxes to fund the NHS for those who do not deserve and abuse the system.

 

God forbid there comes a time when the country cannot look after us all but if our political leaders are not careful,that time might be closer than we care to admit. 

[paulb]

No government yet has proven itself of capable of running a piss up in a brewery, so why folk expect them to run a national health service beggars belief.

 

The sooner all health service delivery is in the hands of commercial operations, directly paid for by the end user in cases where those folk can afford it, and paid for out of general taxation for folks who can't, and the National Insurance myth and farce is abolished the better it will be for everyone.

 

The less government interference in anything, the better it works.

 we see from america how that works. better would be an independent state body funded by somethin like a local council/poll tax remove it from politics and it would function many times better without another penny. its daft we have intelligent clever folks workingin t he nhs. yet its run by a person you would be scared to ask to deal with splinter. let it be and support it once destroyed it wont be back. 

[Ghostrider]

 we see from america how that works.

 

No we don't. From America we see an equally broken system where medical insurance companies have been allowed to run amok and dictate to both clients and regulators what they can get away with doing (or in most cases not doing) and the state safety net is woefully inadequate.

 

If the "good ideas" that exist in both the UK and US systems were to be brought together to create a basic starting point blueprint for a health service, IMHO it might be something that could actually work. Instead neither side of the pond learns from their own successes or failures or those of their counterparts on the other side of the briney, and we both continue to be fobbed off with a shambles in which may occasionally manage more by sheer luck than careful planning to do a little good, but mostly is just good people, good equipment, good knowledge and good money wasted, bogged down in a dysfunctional broken system.

[Who Knows]

The NHS is not perfect but Independent peer review has found the UK Health service is the best in the developed world and the USA system was bottom.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/17/nhs-health

 

The organisation who wrote the report was not UK based so did not look at this analysis through rose tinted glasses.

 

There is a history of qualified clinical staff deciding to stand for election and then involved as a politician eg Michael Mathieson formerly the health minister now the justice secretary was an occupational therapist before becoming an MSP and Labour have previously made consultant medical staff peers so they could take up health minister roles in England.

 

The cost of the bureaucracy in the NHS is significantly less than the USA and is one of the points highlighted in the independent review.

 

The NHS through out the UK spend just over £2 billion every week. In Scotland alone it is roughly £1 billion every month spent by the NHS.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Who Knows

[redrobbie]

Labour's big Jim and friend Eddie hit a snag in Glasgow . 

[redrobbie]

Not much better in Dundee the level of animosity now shown to Labour politicians in Scotland just now is unbelievable.      .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1I8P9zMWA

Edited May 6, 2015 by redrobbie