PLEASE NOTE: ANDREW LANSLEY IS THE ENGLISH HEALTH SECRETARY

Andrew Lansley has been in the news today, in the morning because he was going to the Royal College of Nursing conference this afternoon to talk to a select few nurses, and there was to be a motion of no confidence.

Later in the day he was news because he’d been to the conference, there had been a motion of no confidence which was carried by a margin of 99-1, and he’d met some nurses, and told them he regretted that the message he had for them had failed to communicate itself (whatever that means).

Now it’s a given that Lansley is a toast in the making, shortly to be hung out to dry along with his policies (to mix my metaphors). That he was patronising to the nurses also goes without saying. He probably doesn’t know how NOT to be patronising.

But surprisingly it is not with him that I have an issue. No. Rather it is with the media.

The BBC this morning, STV at 6.30 and Channel 4 at 7 pm all made the same mistake. They talked of Lansley as The Health Secretary, and of the NHS as if the UK only had one.

Now, of course, we are all used to the fact that national news programmes treat Scotland as if it isn’t there most of the time.

That’s a given. But I beg of the tv and radio stations, not to mention newspapers to take heed of my plea..

This is election time in Scotland, I SAY THIS IS ELECTION TIME IN SCOTLAND... and we are electing a GOVERNMENT, just like you did last year, which will run our internal affairs.

Among these affairs is health. Your current misleading coverage may mean that some Scottish folk watching you programmes will think that our health service is just about to be semi privatised by a man so out of tune with everyone’s feelings you wonder that he’s not from Mars.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable if they did given today’s coverage. And come to that, the front page of yesterday’s SCOTTISH edition of the Daily Telegraph, which led with a story about the ENGLISH health service.

The truth is that under Nicola Sturgeon (Cabinet Secretary for Health) the Scottish Heath Service is getting better all the time.

Now the Daily Telegraph has no obligation to be fair and even handed so it’s just irritating that it’s not. The BBC, STV and Channel Four, however, have fairness as a contractual obligation. Perhaps at election times (even in far off, unimportant, little Scotlandshire) they might make a little more effort to ensure that their stories are as near the truth as they can reasonably be.

HOW MANY MORE STUPID MISTAKES WILL THEY "LEARN LESSONS" FROM?

Organs have been removed from dead bodies after a blunder affecting Britain’s donor register.


The records of 800,000 people were affected by an error, and their wishes were not properly recorded.


45 of them have since died, and around 20 have had organs taken where consent had not been given.


From what I read in the Telegraph, this is a Britain-wide service which is run by the English Health Service. It is therefore the responsibility of Andy Burnham, the English Health Secretary.


He has said that he “deeply regretted the distress” caused to bereaved families following the blunder.


He said: "I want to assure the millions of people on the organ donor register that they can have full confidence that only their accurate information will be discussed with their families, and that their wishes will be respected. Yes, we believe you Mr Burnham. We have total confidence in the fact that you run a superb service in this delicate matter entrusted to you.


Professor Duff of Sheffield University is to carry out a review to find out how this came about from which doubtless “lessons will be learned” as usual. Not.


Apparently donors can give permission for all or some of their organs to be taken and some people feel strongly about certain parts of their body being recycled. I’ve donated my body in its entirety to the Scottish Health Service to do with it as they please, but I can understand other people's strong feelings about what should be done with their parts.


NHS Blood and Transplant has, since the error was discovered, been able to correct 400,000 of the records. 400,000 people are still to be contacted to asked to provide consent again. Until fresh consent is obtained, organs will not be taken from any of those people in the event of death.


The error apparently happened in 1999. Data held by the DVLA, which includes a request for organ donation consent in applications for a driving licence, was transferred over to the organ registry and only came to light when NHS Blood and Transplant wrote to new donors to thank them for joining, and confirming their wishes regarding their donations. People replied pointing out that the information was wrong.


A spokesman for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "We are taking it very seriously and are urgently investigating the situation." Well so they bloody well should be. It’s serious!


A Department of Health spokesman said: "NHSBT has made the Department of Health aware that 'a very small number' of donor families and a small proportion of records may have been affected by a coding error on the Organ Donor Register.” Well from what I can see it’s around 400,000, which by any manner or means couldn’t be called a small number, except by some weasels trying to small down the size of their cock up.


Who is going to lose their job?

Pictured: Andy Burnham, English Health Secretary