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Here is today's Mancunian Way:
by BETH ABBIT - Wed July 20, 2022
Hello,
So how did everyone manage overnight? It was a bit cooler, but not much. Thankfully there was a very minor breeze when I opened the door this morning. Very minor. Like a garden gnome blowing a gentle raspberry.
Anyway, on to the news. We’ll be looking at the pressure on ambulance crews, the latest strike action affecting Greater Manchester and that long hot summer of 1976, in today's newsletter.
Snowballing
Paramedics are warning that ambulances are being treated like ‘extra wards’ as patients are left outside hospital for up to three hours. Meanwhile, patients are waiting hours from the time they call 999 to paramedics actually reaching them - if they manage to get there at all.
When patients reach hospital, handovers to hospital medics are taking up to three hours as hospitals are full, health reporter Helena Vesty writes. She has spoken to medics who claim waiting times to see a doctor can vary from between two and eight hours.
"From a handover point of view, it's very, very difficult sometimes because the A&E departments are full,” one paramedic told Helena. “We'll have staff who will turn up at a hospital and they might be there for two or three hours.” They add: “You can’t leave your patient because we want to make sure our patient is OK. We end up being used as an extra ward sometimes.”
One junior doctor says extra strains such as heat and Covid have a ‘snowballing effect’ on waiting times. “There is a lot of talk about heat as it is topical, but in a few days when all the heat settles, the waiting times will remain roughly similar to see a doctor in A&E,” they say.
Another paramedic says one reason the system is so pressured is down to the sheer volume of calls to 999 that are not life-threatening emergencies.
“People don’t want to wait for a GP appointment so end up going to A&E," they say. "And people are still coming in now with stubbed toes, demanding to be seen, and then wondering why they're not being seen for 12 hours. It’s because we're incredibly busy with some very sick people. There's no easy solution for handovers and turnaround times with hospitals.”
Summer of strikes
It’s shaping up to be a summer of strikes. The RMT is planning further action next Wednesday (July 27) as the bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions rumbles on. Meanwhile Aslef - the union which represents train drivers - is planning action later this month due to a pay dispute.
Today it’s the turn of bus drivers. Arriva staff based in Wythenshawe and Bolton are striking over pay too. Unite the union says staff are struggling with the cost of living and describe the walk-outs as a 'last resort'.
Dave Roberts, Unite regional officer told transport reporter Charlotte Cox that members are ‘starting to feel the pinch’ and ‘a good pay rise is vital for them to be able to survive’.
"We do know it's going to impact passengers but unfortunately this is a last resort."
More than 1,800 Arriva workers are part of the industrial action, which is also affecting Merseyside. Arriva has offered drivers an 8.5 percent pay rise. Unite the Union and GMB are pushing for the inflation rate of 11.7 percent.
Weather, etc.
Thursday: Overcast
Pollen count: High
Roads closed: Delph New Road, Dobcross, in both directions for roadworks between Wall Hill Road and Oldham Road until August 5. A57 Eccles New Road westbound closed for gas main work from Canterbury Gardens to Gilda Brook Road until July 22. Roads busy around Tatton Park as visitors arrive for the flower show.
Buses: Arriva Bus Services suspended due to strike action.
Today's Manc trivia question: In which year were the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter
Huge suffering
With inflation at a new 40-year high, a charity is warning that money worries are causing ‘huge suffering’ for some families. Inflation pushed to 9.4 percent in June, up from 9.1 percent in May, squeezing family budgets up and down the country.
Imran Hussain, of Action for Children, says an inflation high paired with a benefits low is creating ‘huge financial and emotional suffering for some of the low-income families with children’. “Many are seeing entire monthly incomes quickly swallowed up as they battle to meet their children’s basic needs," he says.
“Families need more help and Universal Credit can help them. Why isn’t the government using it? Instead, we have leadership debates dominated by offers of tax cuts which are little help for the low paid."
Journey times to be slashed
The budget for the long-awaited Transpennine Route Upgrade between Manchester and York via Leeds is being tripled. Set to slash journey times, cut carbon emissions and fully electrify lines, it will be worth up to £11.5bn when it is completed in the next 15 years.
But as Joseph Timan reports, local leaders say it’s not enough. They have been pushing for more railway investment in the North of England, including an underground high-speed rail train station at Piccadilly. They claim the current plans for trains to travel on concrete viaducts across East Manchester would rob the region's economy of £333m a year by 2050.
When speaking to Joseph, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps conceded the extra cash for the upgrades - at least £6.1bn - could be spent on the underground HS2 station, estimated to cost less. But he argued upgrading existing lines would be a better use of money.
"I accept that government means having to make decisions and choose between these things, but the choice was, which improved journey do you not want to have in return, and I didn't think there was a better option. I'd much rather get on with things like speeding up this journey between Manchester, Leeds and York."
The first phase of work, set to start next year, will eventually bring journeys between Manchester and Leeds down to 33 minutes. Mr Shapps said the upgrades can be delivered 10 to 15 years faster than building a new line by ‘trying to blast our way across the Pennines’.
Andy Burnham welcomed news of the upgrade budget increasing, but said it’s ‘hugely disappointing’ that a commitment to a completely new line won’t be met. "Doing Piccadilly right has got to be the best way to level up Manchester and the North,” he said. "If you look at what has been spent on stations in London in the last decade, how we can be arguing about a few billion pounds for Piccadilly, I honestly don't know."
Firm based at Class of 92 uni rated 'inadequate'
An apprentice training firm at the university academy co-founded by Manchester United's Class of 92 stars has been rated ‘inadequate’ following an inspection.
Code Nation Limited rents space at the University Academy 92 (UA92) campus, in Stretford, and deliver their own courses independently.
As Nick Jackson reports, it has had a contract to deliver apprenticeships since October 2018 with the first group of apprentices starting in January 2019. Ofsted inspectors voiced concern that a ‘small minority’ of software developer apprentices are recruited ‘following the completion of a self-funded digital bootcamp, which costs them many thousands of pounds’.
"They are then expected to attend the same training, which is funded through the apprenticeship levy, from which they do not learn any further substantial new knowledge, skills or behaviours," the report said.
Code Nation chief executive David Muir said he is 'desperately disappointed'. He said the pandemic had meant employers had to change business models, move to remote working and this led to a need to pause or terminate apprenticeships. He said progress against a detailed improvement is already being made.
Manchester headlines
Graduation: A student who was given just 12 months to live following a routine eye test has graduated from the University of Manchester. Laura Nuttall was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, an incurable form of brain cancer, in 2018. After responding well to immunotherapy she started the uni course and has now graduated with a 2:1. Professor Jackie Carter said she has met very few people like Laura. “Unlike most of my students who are wondering what to do with their futures, Laura quite literally doesn't know what hers holds - but she's getting on with it, and doing it all with a spirit that shines through her every pore when you meet her.”
PMQs: Boris Johnson signed off his final PMQs with a 'hasta la vista baby' as Tory MPs whooped and clapped. The Prime Minister, who was kicked out of office in disgrace only weeks earlier by those same MPs, said he was proud of his record in Government. Offering advice to his successor he said: “Stay close to the Americans, stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere. Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest, which it is.”
Greenscaping: Andy Burnham says he’s open to suggestions on how to ‘greenscape’ Manchester. Asked on Twitter how he planned to introduce more greenery and water facilities to the city centre, the mayor replied that his teams are working with other public sector bodies to build new parks. “We’re supporting the City Council with the building of a new park near Piccadilly and creating a raised 'High Line' park in Castlefield. But always open as to how we can do more,” he tweeted.
Summer of ‘76
The taste of thirst-quenching Midlands bitter evokes memories of the red-hot summer of 1976 for Neal Keeling. The Manchester Evening News chief reporter has been looking back on that epic summer and recalls how a minister for drought was appointed as a national crisis developed.
“As reservoirs dried out, gardeners were banned from using hosepipes. Meanwhile The Bellamy Brothers, folk rockers who were so soft they made The Eagles look like Hells Angels, chirped 'Let Your Love Flow Like a Mountain Stream',” he writes.
Worth a read
Intrepid What's On writer Dianne Bourne has put her best foot forward to ride the Manchester Party Bike. Up to ten people can pedal away while Manc party tunes ring out and the vehicle has been garnering plenty of attention.
"On my trip given there was 18 legs all pedalling away at once I thought we might have built up a bit more momentum. Yet hilariously we never got to a speed to match, say, a passing baby buggy to be honest," Dianne writes.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me, the next edition of the Mancunian Way will be with you around the same time tomorrow. If you have any stories you would like us to feature or look into, please contact me at beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk
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The answer to today’s trivia question, in which year were the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, is 2002.
