Hospitals seem to have figured prominently in spontaneous conversations over past week or so. One example, and far from the first, is somebody in Goole needing NHS treatment and being sent to Grimsby. Scunthorpe was a questionable hospital to be sending Goole patients to given the relatively poor public transport. Grimsby just seems perverse. It’s 50+ miles away. There is no direct public transport. It’s a 100 mile round trip – a tall order for driving to and from if you are unwell and having treatment (48 miles to Grimsby if you use the road via Eastoft and Crowle, 53 miles if you use the M62 from Goole).

Then a relative of your writer who lives in Howden became seriously ill. The relative was taken to Hull. Two trains an hour most of day from Goole on weekdays, roughly 30 minute train journey. Hospital 5 mins from Hull Paragon station. Visiting was pretty simple and straightforward by train – apart from Saturday evening when apparently somebody was hit by a train around Thorne which caused a service suspension for a couple of hours.

Other conversations with people who run small and medium sized businesses revolved around the burdens on business. It’s not that the businesses objected to taxes being collected for the common good as I understood it, but money being wasted. Inexplicably high costs for projects. Trips on expenses that seem hard to justify – certainly for the length of the stay in the context of the ostensible purpose of the trip.

There could be worse ideas than looking at what senior managers – those with impressive job titles, telephone number salaries and sizeable egos – do, to assess what value they truly deliver. Would the NHS benefit from fewer managers and more people with the skills and expertise to deliver healthcare? Can just under £500k really be justified for the head of a school academy chain when the head of a local education authority can only earn a maximum of about £140k (see for example:
https://thelead.uk/academy-chain-where-ceo-makes-nearly-half-million-and-teachers-recruited-jamaica-get-under-ps30k#:~:text=With%20a%20leader%20on%20a,least%20by%20the%20educational%20media

A strike at a school in York has been called off for the time being, but the claims around local authorities being forced to buy in centrally planned school services from Academy Trusts, replacing what used to be tailored to local needs (effectively privatising the formerly local authority run school system in all but name) makes interesting reading and is food for thought: https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/24627217.saints-rc-school-staff-york-set-go-strike/

The no expense spared stylishness of the East Riding Council RaiSe building on Tom Pudding Way again comes to mind in the context of the town centre council offices, registry office etc having been closed in the town centre, while customer services and Opportunity Goole were crammed into the already cramped public library. It’s this sort of begrudging the public decent services and spaces, while the decision makers revel in the lovely things they have treated themselves to at the public expense which really infuriates people.

The photo for this update shows the start of Week 4 at the Dunhill Road works.

There is a public consultation on how the NHS should be taken forward. How many people would like - say – much greater use to be made of Goole’s hospital? And an end to being sent to Grimsby for treatment other than in exceptional circumstances? The consultation, where the public can make suggestions and comments, is here: https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/