Deprivation a Driving Factor of Drug-Related Deaths Scotland continues to face the most severe drug-related mortality crises within the UK and across Europe (see Scotland Drug-Related Deaths Scandal this website) with significant disparities between the rates in socially deprived and affluent groups. Analysis of data from the National Records of Scotland reveals that drug-related deaths…
Two Decades of Rising Drug Related Deaths Data from National Records Scotland reveals Scotland's drug-related death (DRD) crisis has exploded over the past two decades. Since 2004 the DRD rate has grown from 356 to 1065 deaths per year (see Figure 1 and Table 1). Breaking down the data by gender reveals even more distressing…
ADHD Prescription Trends in Scotland Scotland has experienced a significant surge in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses over the past decade, affecting both adult and youth populations. Increasing Numbers Tell the Story: Dramatic Growth: NHS data reveals a steep upward trajectory. Precise comparisons to early data can be tricky due to changes in the…
Britain's ADHD Boom How a perfect storm of pandemic pressures, social media awareness, and evolving medical understanding has transformed the landscape of ADHD in the UK and Scotland Morag was always the scatty one at school. She grew into the friend who lost her keys daily, forgot appointments, and never seemed able to finish what…
The New Weight Loss Revolution A new class of drugs has been making headlines recently due to significant weight loss in people using these drugs. The drugs belong to a class know as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs). They were originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and only later approved for weight…
Cancer 62 Day Wait Times By Health Board This page contains summaries of wait times by Health Board for the year 2024. The purpose is to provide summary visuals of the data and thus there is no comment about each Health Board. For Methodology, References, Data Downloads and Data Sources please see: Cancer Waiting Times…
NHS Scotland Cancer Waiting Times NHS Scotland publishes two key metrics relating to waiting times for cancer treatment: Cancer Wait Time - 31 Day Standard which monitors the time from a decision to treat has been made to first treatment start (i.e. when the cancer specialist review the patient and decides that treatment is necessary).…
Weight Loss Drug Prescriptions Cost There is massive public interest in a new class of weight loss drugs (Wegovy, Mounjaro and Saxenda) which have been shown in clinical trials to help patients to achieve from 12% to 22% loss of body weight when used for one year. These drugs are expensive to manufacture and one…
Women with Gynaecological Health Problems Face Long Delays for Treatment The issue of long waits for treatment for women with gynaecological conditions has recently featured in the mainstream media following a report by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). The report highlighted the huge backlog of 570,000 women in the English NHS system…
NHS Scotland: Dept of General Medicine Inpatients Activity and Backlog Latest data for Scottish hospital inpatient activity for General Medicine up to 31 December 2023 shows a continuation of the backlog of 106,406 patient spells which is the equivalent of 4.0 months worth of activity. During the Covid-19 pandemic hospital inpatient activity levels fell dramatically…