00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Tuesday. My name is
00:05Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by Investigations Correspondent
00:10Martin McLaughlin. And Martin, we've got a couple of stories to talk about and the first
00:16one featured prominently on the front page of today's print edition of the Scotsman.
00:22Crisis alert, there's more than 800 died during weights for AME. These were figures released by
00:28the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. We've heard lots of doom and gloom about the state of
00:34the health service. I know many that have spoken to this newspaper about the wait times experienced
00:42have said it remains an ongoing concern and we're just a couple of months out from another winter.
00:48Certainly the temperature has started to dip and we've got to think about how the winter
00:53the health service is going to perform against the world across the winter. Martin, certainly on the
00:59basis of what the Royal College is saying, there's still some significant concerns about INA. Can you
01:05talk us through? Yeah, absolutely Dale. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine have a quite well
01:11established metric they use called the standard mortality ratio, which calculates how many additional
01:18deaths there will be for the amount of people that are experiencing extreme weights in accident
01:24emergency departments across the country. Those are weights of between 8 and 12 hours. Now last year,
01:31according to the Royal College, there was an estimated 818 associated excess deaths related to stays of 12
01:40hours or longer. That is significantly up on the 2023 figure by more than 200. So it's really
01:48raised a lot of concerns within the emergency medicine community. And in reality, even though that
01:55figure is really startling and alarming in and of itself, it really is only the tip of the iceberg.
02:01I mean, the RCN figures showed that across 2024, there was a record number of patients who waited 12 or
02:10more hours to be admitted, discharged or transferred from A&E last year. That's 76,510 people.
02:18So, you know, the crisis facing the A&E departments and the wider NHS across the country has really
02:25come into sharp focus with these figures. And the reality is, you know, things are not really
02:31improving. There's been more recent analysis of the summer months, only a few months ago, June and July,
02:40where there were nearly 10,000 people who endured a stay of 12 hours or more,
02:45from the point they arrived in A&E. So if the emergency departments across Scotland are finding
02:51it really difficult to cope during the warm, climate weather, I think the now annual concerns for what
02:59we have in store this winter are becoming increasingly acute.
03:04And Martin, Rachel Amory, our political correspondent's been reporting as well this
03:10morning. A senior doctor, the link to the RCEM, spoke as well and confirmed that the frailty teams,
03:18these were the specialist teams at the door to deal with frail patients. Commitment to have them at
03:24hospitals across the country has not come to pass. It was a suggestion only one hospital had been able
03:31to actually put these teams in place. It had been a commitment made by John Swinney's government.
03:36You can read that story as well at scotsman.com. A different subject, Martin, but one that is
03:44possibly a bit discouraging for listeners as well, but a prominent military museum as well is in
03:51jeopardy. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, this is a museum that perhaps not too many
03:57people in the country will be familiar with, but those who do know it will greatly value it. It's
04:03called the Military Museum Scotland in West Lothian. It's really a crusade that began from one man,
04:10a chap called Ian Ingalls, who used to serve in the Royal Artillery like his father and grandfather
04:16before him. And he's been an avid collector of military memorabilia all his life. And his collection
04:25reached the point a few years ago where he started touring schools and he had effectively a mobile
04:31museum using his card, just going around and showing people different artefacts. Fortunately, back in 2017,
04:39he managed to find premises via Sight Scotland Veterans and he has had a popular and well-used
04:47museum facility that has lots of kind of wider community outreach purposes. You know, it has
04:54veteran drop-ins, metal detecting clubs, coffee mornings. Unfortunately, as with so many third sector
05:01organisations, the future of this organisation is in doubt now because Sight Scotland Veterans are looking to
05:08sell the site on which the museum is based for housing because it is facing its own financial
05:14pressures. So Ian spoke to the Scotsman and explained, you know, it really, they need help. They need
05:20somebody to step in and help them find premises. And I think anyone who's come into contact with that
05:25museum will really understand and appreciate the value that one man and the wider volunteer team can offer
05:33the veteran community across the country. So let's hope that the publicity of the story can help secure
05:43a new future for this museum. And you mentioned housing as well, Martin. We know that the Housing
05:48Bill of the Scottish Parliament is being debated. Amendments are being voted on throughout today,
05:54tomorrow, and we're hearing it could kick on until as long as Tuesday next week. Among those amendments
05:59are some around second homes and second homeowners that really could change the landscape if you fall into
06:06that category. You can read both the stories that we've discussed here, marthenandi.scotsman.com.
06:14If you ever can't find our relevant sections of the health tab that will take you through to this
06:19startling story about the state of our A&E and you can find that via the navigation bar on the homepage.
06:26You can follow us on all social media channels as always and go out and pick up a copy of the
06:32Scotsman in print tomorrow for all the very latest. Thanks to you, Martin. Thanks to everyone else for tuning in.
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