Health

Huntington’s disease: northern Scotland has one of world’s highest rates and rising sharply – here’s why

Stephen Richard — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 17:52:50 +0000

Huntington’s disease: northern Scotland has one of world’s highest rates and rising sharply – here’s why

Primary Author or Creator

Zofia Miedzybrodzka

Stephen Richard Tue, 10/12/2021 - 18:52

Additional Author(s) / Creators

The Conversation

Date Published

Thu, 08/26/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

News Media

Fast Facts

Although Huntington’s disease is particularly common in northern Scotland, our data clearly shows that there is far more Huntington’s diagnosed now than the previous prevalence studies suggest, and more people with the HD gene are testing before the appearance of symptoms to access better care and research trials.

Resource Address (URL)

https://theconversation.com/huntingtons-disease-northern-scotland-has-one-of-wo…

Keywords

Huntington's disease

Language English

Scotland’s COVID inquiry must be credible, timely and thorough – here’s what needs to happen

Stephen Richard — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 17:46:15 +0000

Scotland’s COVID inquiry must be credible, timely and thorough – here’s what needs to happen

Primary Author or Creator

Andrew Watterson

Stephen Richard Tue, 10/12/2021 - 18:46

Additional Author(s) / Creators

The Conversation

Date Published

Wed, 09/01/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

News Media

Fast Facts

Four steps for a successful inquiry

No delays

Devolved matters only

What has worked and what hasn’t

Public respons

Resource Address (URL)

https://theconversation.com/scotlands-covid-inquiry-must-be-credible-timely-and…

Keywords

Covid19

Language English

Scotland won’t prosecute personal possession of class A drugs, but outdated laws prevent deeper reforms

Stephen Richard — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 16:55:40 +0000

Scotland won’t prosecute personal possession of class A drugs, but outdated laws prevent deeper reforms

Primary Author or Creator

Rick Lines

Stephen Richard Tue, 10/12/2021 - 17:55

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Niamh Eastwood, The Conversation,

Date Published

Wed, 10/06/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

News Media

Fast Facts

The drug-related death crisis is not only a Scottish problem but one for politicians across all four nations. If the government wants to save lives, it must reform our harmful laws, beginning with the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Resource Address (URL)

https://theconversation.com/scotland-wont-prosecute-personal-possession-of-clas…

Keywords

Drugs policy

Language English

James McCune Smith: new discovery reveals how first African American doctor fought for women’s rights in Glasgow

Stephen Richard — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 10:59:15 +0000

James McCune Smith: new discovery reveals how first African American doctor fought for women’s rights in Glasgow

Primary Author or Creator

Matthew Daniel Eddy

Stephen Richard Tue, 10/12/2021 - 11:59

Additional Author(s) / Creators

The Conversation

Date Published

Fri, 10/08/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Women

Type of Resource

News Media

Fast Facts

McCune Smith’s activism showed aspiring African Americans that becoming a professional black physician could be more than simply treating patients. For him, being an expert in medical science also included using his training to fight injustice and inequality.

Resource Address (URL)

https://theconversation.com/james-mccune-smith-new-discovery-reveals-how-first-…

Keywords

James McCune Smith

Black History

Glasgow

Language English

NHS Scotland: how much is being spent?

Stephen Richard — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 19:41:45 +0000

NHS Scotland: how much is being spent?

Primary Author or Creator

Claire Milne

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/28/2021 - 20:41

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Full fact

Date Published

Fri, 01/26/2018 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

Fact check

Fast Facts

The planned increase in day-to-day spending on health in Scotland between 2006/07 and 2018/19 has gone up by £4 billion to £13 billion. It doesn’t account for inflation though, once that is added the increase is £2 billion.

More details

Health is a devolved area in Scotland, and the Scottish government decides exactly how much money is going to go into the NHS budget each year.

The Scottish government’s budget is made up of three components: money it receives through the block grant from the UK government, money raised through taxes in Scotland (and collected by the Scottish government directly), and money raised through borrowing.

Resource Address (URL)

https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-scotland-spending/

Keywords

Scottish National Health Service

Public finance

Language English

Believe in Scotland’s Manifesto for Wellbeing. Open Minds on Independence #7

Stephen Richard — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:23:51 +0000

Believe in Scotland’s Manifesto for Wellbeing. Open Minds on Independence #7

Primary Author or Creator

The National

Stephen Richard Thu, 09/23/2021 - 09:23

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Believe in Scotland

Date Published

Fri, 03/05/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Social welfare

Type of Resource

News Media

Fast Facts

Have a read and ask yourself: wouldn’t you like to live in a country with a social/economic/environmental policy framework based on this set of values? Wouldn’t you like to be able to vote to create such a nation?

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.thenational.scot/news/19140766.open-minds-independence-7-believe-sc…

Keywords

Welbeing

Language English

Ending Lockdown

Stephen Richard — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 16:06:43 +0000

Ending Lockdown

Primary Author or Creator

Craig Dalzell

Stephen Richard Sat, 09/04/2021 - 17:06

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Thu, 04/09/2020 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

This paper models the cost of a comprehensive testing-based strategy to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Scotland and to allow the country to emerge safely from its blanket lockdown.

More details

― Scotland is not proactively testing or contact tracing enough people to determine where potential Covid outbreaks are likely to take place. At the time of writing, Germany was testing four people for every one person tested in Scotland. Hong Kong was testing more than 20 people for every one in Scotland.

― The result has been that the virus has spread out of control throughout the country leading to a blanket, national lockdown.

― Extended lockdowns are economically damaging. A three month Lockdown is estimated to cost Scotland around £11 billion in lost economic activity.

― A model has been adapted to show what it would take to be able to deliver one proactive test to detect an active Covid infection and one antibody test to detect previous infection to every person in Scotland at least once per month.

― This high-intensity testing programme would be backed by a network of community-based wellbeing officers who could help with contact tracing chains of infection as well as ensuring that those who have been quarantined are well supported.

― The total cost of this programme is estimated at between £1.0 and £1.5 billion to run for a year. The combined economic cost of a three month lockdown plus the social cost of lives lost, shortened or harmed by the pandemic is estimated at around £15 billion.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ending-Lockdown.pdf

Keywords

Covid19

Virus testing

Language English

The Predictable Crisis

Stephen Richard — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 11:29:15 +0000

The Predictable Crisis

Primary Author or Creator

Nick Kempe

Stephen Richard Sat, 09/04/2021 - 12:29

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Wed, 05/20/2020 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Common Weal investigates the impact of Covid-19 in Scottish Care homes and finds that the warnings about the weaknesses in pandemic preparation were repeatedly ignored with the result of causing “The single greatest failure in devolved government since the creation of the Scottish Parliament”

More details

― Based on quality ratings at the outset of the crisis more than one quarter of Scotland’s care homes (those rated adequate or below) could have been expected to be unable properly to protect older people in the event of a pandemic.

― The Care Inspectorate does a professional job but has few enforcement powers and works inside a regulatory regime which is very limited in scope. As an example, in February they simply did not have the power to do what has now (eventually) been done at the Home Farm Care Home on Skye. The Care Inspectorate was incapable of brining Care Homes up to the standard required by the Covid crisis and poor quality care is embedded in the system.

― The result is that six out of ten care homes in Scotland have had a case of Covid and about 45 per cent still have a current case (as of Monday 18 May) – plus 7.4 per cent of care home staff have been absent with Covid compared to just 4.0 per cent of NHS staff

― All of what has resulted was accurately predicted in 2016 but calls to prepare were ignored. In particular there has been a continuing decline in trained medical staff and a rise in unfilled nursing vacancies (52 per cent of private sector Care Homes have nursing vacancies, compared to 15 per cent in the voluntary sector). There is no formal training for Infection Control for non-medical staff in Care Homes in the care SVQ.

― In 1993 the Community Care Act transferred responsibility for providing nursing care for Older People from the NHS to the private sector and for the first eight weeks of the crisis the Scottish Government was adamant that the the Providers (and not the Scottish Government) was responsible for protecting care home residents – until a mid-May U-turn. This effectively represented the privatisation of the responsibility for Older People in Care during the crisis and had the later U-turn been made at the
beginning many lives would have been saved.

― This meant that medical treatments which could have been delivered in Care Homes (such as the provision of oxygen) were not supported by the Scottish Government who left treatment to the discretion of private companies geared around property finance. In addition the nature of the deaths of Care Home residents was not taken to be a government responsibility and so the use of palliative measures (to make deaths as comfortable as possible) was also left to Providers. This almost certainly means many old people faced an absolutely unnecessarily uncomfortable and painful death. Health staff were not instructed to take the clinical lead in Care Homes until 17 May.

― In addition the mental wellbeing of residents was not made a priority, with people being locked in rooms alone for indefinite periods (as a result of Scottish Government advice), with some being told or knowing that they would be likely to die before seeing family members again. A Human Rights approach was not taken, and while individual Care Homes and staff will have done the best they can, no guidance on quality of life was provided.

― But the repeated updating of guidelines and the urgent steps taken to remove traces of the preceding guideline created a confusing impact – between 10 May (when revised guidelines issued two days earlier were withdrawn) and 15 May (when new revised guidelines were issued) there were no official Scottish Government guidelines at all.

― Private operators have extracted tens of millions of pounds of public money dedicated to care as private profit – and even more has been extracted by ‘flipping’ property which is effectively paid for by the public (the biggest profits in the care sector come from property and not from providing care).

― This is all exacerbated not only by the power of private providers and the way they have influenced the decision-making of successive Scottish Governments but also by prevailing management culture which, by emphasising ‘partnership working’, make criticism of the system almost impossible.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Predictable-Crisis.pdf

Keywords

Language English

Concern Over Lack Of Testing

Stephen Richard — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 11:08:26 +0000

Concern Over Lack Of Testing

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sat, 09/04/2021 - 12:08

Date Published

Tue, 05/26/2020 - 12:00

Category

Health

Fast Facts

Several of Common Weal’s Local Groups respond to the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 Framework for Decision Making by calling for an increase in the ambition of its proposed Test, Trace, Isolate and Support plans.

More details

― The groups are pleased with the Framework in general but are concerned about the lack of scale in its TTIS plan.

― The policy of mass testing must be increased to meet the scale demanded by the pandemic.

― The Scottish Government should adopt a programme more akin to Common Weal’s previous policy paper on testing, Ending Lockdown.

― The group is concerned that attempts by the UK Government to prematurely end restrictions will result in a spike cases and calls for the Scottish Government to resist political pressures to follow suit.

― Given the potential negative costs of not controlling the virus, this scheme should not be seen as a “big ask” but as a “sensible and logical ask”.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Local-group-Covid-Response.p…

Keywords

Covid19

Virus testing

Social distancing

Language English

Common Weal's Manifesto for a National Care Service

Stephen Richard — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 08:40:47 +0000

Common Weal's Manifesto for a National Care Service

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal Care Reform Group

Stephen Richard Tue, 08/17/2021 - 09:40

Date Published

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

In this Manifesto, released ahead of the Scottish Government’s Independent Review of Adult Social Care the group lays out the principles of care that should be met by any proposed blueprint for Care reform and will be followed up in due course with a comprehensive blueprint for an NCS that would meet these principles and align with the values of Common Weal.

More details

The Covid crisis has shown up the failings of the social care system in Scotland as never before and the need for a new National Care Service alongside the NHS. Common Weal submitted a draft set of principles for a National Care Service to the Independent Review of Adult Social Care under Derek Feeley which is due to report by the end of January 2021. Common Weal has now refined and developed those principles into a Manifesto for a National Care Service which it believes should be used to judge the recommendations of the Adult Care Review. Common Weal’s Manifesto goes beyond the remit of the Adult Social Care Review and calls for care to be considered as a whole, cradle to grave, children as well as adults. In setting up the Adult Care Review, CW believes the Scottish Government missed an opportunity to end the fragmentation of social care and also to build on the recommendations of the Independent Care Review for Children.

If adopted, the principles in the manifesto would result in:

– All care being not for profit

– Care provision being free at the point of use, like the NHS

– Care and support being provided to all who need it, reversing the cuts since the impositions of austerity

– The current care system being transformed through a recognition that relationships are central to what makes good care, not a tick list of tasks

– Care provision becoming far more preventive, reversing the trend to focus on those with “priority” needs

– Care provision being designed from the bottom up, instead of the top down

– The entire workforce being paid local authority rates and being properly trained

– Service Users, Informal Carers and the workforce being given control where it matters, instead of the current tokenistic emphasis on rights

Common Weal believes these principles reflect the aspirations that many people in Scotland have for a new National Care Service. Common Weal has serious concerns about the extent to which the recommendations of the Feeley Review will deliver any of those aspirations which what has prompted us to publish the manifesto now.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Manifesto-for-a-National-Car…

Keywords

Health care

National Care Service

Aged care

Disabled care

Language English