Botched operations and surgical errors

Well done to Ross Finnie MSP for getting the answer to his question about "botched" operations.

The headline in today's Metro on page nine "Finnie: 5,000 botched ops in last five years" is quite alarming but as my friend and colleague Caron says "please don't panic".

However, as Ross Finnie has uncovered these figures appear quite alarming, but are they really down to negligence? I suspect not. Are they down to surgeons rushing to comply with government targets? Maybe, maybe not.

What they do show is that a little more patience and care is required and less rushing around.

The Health Boards, especially, and mainly the staff do a wonderful job and often thankless but patients have a right to go in for an operation and leave again without bits of hospital equipment left inside them.

The figures released in the Parliamentary answer to Ross show that in the last 5 years, 3106 people have suffered some sort of organ damage through cuts being made in the wrong place or errors such as leaving swabs inside a wound - which really does sound uncomfortable.

The first thing Caron asked herself when she saw this was "how many operations took place in Scotland during this period." Fortunately Caron didn't have to look very far, because the Scotsman had done it for her - 1.2 million operations took place during 2008. If you multiply that by five, that gives 6 million. On these figures, the risk of surgical error is tiny - 0.0919% of an error happening, 0.05% chance of organ damage.

So, don't panic, and trust the Health Boards.

Leith - the plan for the Port and Docks

As I was surfing around catching up on news on the Scottish blogs I saw on my good friend and colleague, Caron's blog a great posting about Leith Harbour, read it here.

I don't claim to be a Leither, I have only lived in Scotland since May 31st 2008 (although 4 weeks holiday every year for many years must count for something). But, I do love where I live and am sure as I am here longer I will call myself a Leither, it's an awesome area.

I live on Western Harbour, next to Newhaven Harbour and close to Leith Harbour and Docks and it is very much Leith, not Edinburgh.

Forth Ports have got this wrong, when you go on their own website they have the Leith Docks development separated from the Edinburgh Waterfront until you go into each aspect and then see that they also include Granton in this, with a picture of Newhaven & Leith.

They claimed in the piece in the Scotsman that people have got it wrong and that Leith Docks is the overall name, well it isn't what their website insinuates. Their website states the opposite, so I think as well as joining Greener Leith and I urge you to check out their take on the Harbour we should let Forth Ports know our views, the only email address I can find on their website is bshaw@bigpartnership.com so I am urging all my readers to use this email and let them know your views!

I am pleased that Edinburgh City Council Leader, Councillor Jenny Dawe is listening to the local residents on this important issue, well done Jenny.

Forth Ports are out of step on this issue, let's hope they get get it right!

My 2008

Wow - what a year that was!

Career wise, 2008 definitely had its ups and downs. Those who work closely with me know what the main issue was for me in 2008 :-)

2008 started with the commencement of the London GLA and Mayoral campaigns with Brian Paddick as the London Liberal Democrats Mayoral candidate and an array of candidates across London for the GLA Constituency and List.

The election campaign pushed me to the limits on many levels, I learnt a tremendous amount and it made me view some things both politically and career wise slightly differently.

The result was a little hard to swallow, especially with only returning a team of three to the London Assembly. Caroline Pidgeon, Dee Doocey and Mike Tuffrey are the Lib Dems group in the GLA.

Nobody should underestimate the Liberal Democrats in London because of this campaign. In all Council by-elections last year the Conservatives averaged 36%, Lib Dems 29% and Labour 25%.

We were and still are outpolling the Party that is the National Government!

During the London campaign the Party advertised the post of Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland, after a discussion with my partner we both decided I should apply, so during a very busy and stressful time at work I put together my CV and also went to the Scottish Liberal Democrats Spring conference in Aviemore.

I got the job - hurrah, but really couldn't think much about it as we still had polling day to get through!

I eventgually got through the London campaign and then had to start planning a move to Edinburgh. I moved up first on Friday 30th May and on the Saturday morning was out delivering leaflets in Dunfermline with Willie Rennie MP, Elspeth Finlay and Caron Lindsay.

Roger arrived in August with Zennor, I had gone down to help them move up on the train. We were both really worried about Zen especially as once in her cage she gets stressed out. In the taxi to Kings Cross Station she was bad, but once we arrived at the station and then got on the train and all the way to Edinburgh she was an absolute angel.

Since we moved here we have had to move and now have a lovely flat in Western Harbour.

I have had a baptism of fire since my arrival with two Parliamentary by-elections, first in Glasgow East where our candidate Ian Robertson was brilliant - a star of the future - and the second in Glenrothes with our candidate Harry Wills. My sincere thanks both to Ian and Harry and the fantastic teams who helped me through those four months!

Since then I have had time to concentrate on our Euro 2009 campaign and also start to enjoy this beautiful country that is now our home.

Happy New Year!