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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
“We literally can’t move on our corridors at the moment for people being treated there.”
That’s according to an experienced A&E consultant in Greater Manchester. They say examinations in corridors and waiting rooms with nothing but a sheet to protect dignity is now commonplace.
It’s all part and parcel of the shocking picture being painted by medics and patients from inside our crumbling national health service.
On another day of ambulance worker strikes, we’ll be taking a closer look at the reality of life on the frontline.
Also today, we’ll be discussing a possible council tax hike, the hundreds of rail services cancelled last minute and the students demanding a change in their rents.
We’ll also be looking at a new Wild West themed restaurant serving ‘Lone Ranger’ chops that has opened in south Manchester. Let’s begin.
Hours in ambulances and ‘waiting room’ medicine
Striking, for the many thousands of ambulance staff who are doing so today, is about more than just pay. Most feel they are fighting for the future of the NHS itself.
Those on the picket line at Manchester Central ambulance station this morning said patient safety is being compromised - and it can’t go on.
"I feel at the moment that as a whole the NHS is unsafe,” paramedic Mark Taylor told reporter John Scheerhout.
“People are being left on ambulances at six, seven or eight hours at a time. Last night we had a lady with dementia who was quite poorly and she was in the back of the ambulance for eight hours. She needed to be in a hospital but there was no capacity.
"It's not safe for the staff and it's not safe for the patients or the nurses in A&Es. Something needs to change.”
Technician Matt Adams, a steward for Unison, says ‘chronic’ understaffing ‘needs sorting’.
“We have ambulance trolleys on hospital corridors. The hospitals have a 15-minute target to get crews back out on the road. But we can be there anywhere between an hour on a good day and the longest I've heard about is 18 hours. There are just not enough staff in the whole of the NHS.
"Our staff are almost used to it but they are also angry about it because they can't do the job that they are trained to do. The government needs to sit down and talk to the heads of the unions and listen to these problems."
It’s a problem mirrored inside hospitals.
As one senior medic told health reporter Helena Vesty they regularly carry out examinations in corridors and waiting rooms with nothing but a sheet to protect dignity.
“It's a daily occurrence that colleagues - grown doctors doing their absolute best in impossible conditions - are crying and having to take sick leave for burnout and PTSD," they say.
"The conditions we are working in are simply not safe, and they are driven by a lack of funding and a lack of staffing. Waiting room medicine can never be safe medicine, it's firefighting.”
Meanwhile, a medic of just over three years believes junior doctors will be next in line to strike as so many are ‘at breaking point’.
“It can only go one way in terms of numbers when there's inadequate social care support and wards are completely full… I don't know any A&E department that isn't several times over capacity for patients and understaffed,” they say.
“This is a national picture. You get short term respite some days but it never lasts."
Read more: 'I'm an exhausted paramedic. I'm striking again because I'm furious'
Council tax hike
Taxpayers in Manchester could end up paying at least £50 more a year.
As council bosses try to balance the books, they’re considering a five per cent increase from April, Joseph Timan reports.
That doesn’t include the council tax precepts set by mayor Andy Burnham and the ten local authorities. If those charges don’t change, the bill for a Band A home in Manchester - which accounts for most properties in the city - would total almost £1,300 next year.
Households claiming council tax support would get £25 off their bills, councillors have been told. This means that those who receive the full amount of support available - a discount of 82.5 pc - would end up being ‘better off’.
A four-week consultation is now open and invites people to share their thoughts on the plans to raise general council tax by 2.99 per cent with an additional 2 per cent ring-fenced for adult social care.
Labour councillor and executive member for finance Rabnawaz Akbar says the town hall must prepare for a 'cliff edge' in funding as public finances are expected to be cut.
"The government’s financial settlement was slightly better than we feared. But it is only for one year and there is considerable uncertainty beyond that – except that we know public sector cuts are coming down the line from 2025/26 onwards,” he said at a recent meeting.
Students using food banks
Students have been forced to use food banks and get full-time jobs to make ends meet, one campaigner has claimed.
Hundreds studying at the University of Manchester are planning a rent strike amid a six per cent hike in accommodation costs for some. They want a 30 per cent cut on monthly payments and for some fees to be refunded.
The university says a package of support had been put in place. But students say that does little to offset the problem.
Fraser McGuire told reporter Sophie Halle-Richards he will take part in the rent strike as he's been left with just £200 for the next few months after halls of residence fees came out.
"Like a lot of students I have always found the rent very high but especially finding out it has increased over the last year," the 19-year-old History and Politics student said.
"I know students in Manchester who are working full time jobs as well as their degrees because they can't afford not to. Lots of people haven't come back yet this year because it's cheaper for them to stay at home.
“Whilst the university has provided some help it's not enough. I know there are students relying on food banks and working full-time."
Masking the true figures
Hundreds of trains were pre-cancelled by TransPennine Express (TPE) over the autumn.
And rail bosses claim the operator’s reliability statistics are being 'masked' by its continuing use of 'infuriating' pre-planned service cancellations as late as 10pm the night before.
Between September 18 and November 12 TPE had pre-cancelled between 250 and 450 trains per week, according to a new report. Combined with on-the-day cancellations, it means between a fifth and a quarter of all TPE trains are being regularly cancelled, as Paul Britton reports.
Pre-planned service cancellations - known as P-coded trains - are removed from systems by 10pm the evening before the trains are due to run, but crucially are not included in passenger delay repay schemes and do not count towards official performance figures.
Transport for Greater Manchester has already said 'P-codes' were brought in for exceptional circumstances like derailments as a 'short term emergency', but claimed they were now 'being used every day' and TPE were 'pulling between 50 to 80 trains a day on some days with P-codes'.
Greater Manchester Transport Committee will consider a report into TPE’s performance on Friday.
TPE says prolonged disruption has been caused by a combination of factors including high levels of sickness and a training backlog following the pandemic.
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Weather etc
Thursday: Light rain changing to cloudy by late morning. 11C.
Road closures: M56 Eastbound exit slip road to the A34 closed due to roadworks at A34 Kingsway until 7am on February 5.
Trains: Salford Central will be closed until summer 2023 for vital platform and canopy works.
Trivia question: What's the oldest pub in Manchester?
Manchester headlines
Booking: A man living in a city centre tower block that was ‘evacuated’ over a dramatic fire safety report was left homeless on Sunday night. The resident returned to Manchester from Europe having spent Christmas with his family. He claims he had been assured hotel accommodation would be provided as he was unable to stay in his flat at Bracken House. But when he tried to check into the hotel the booking could not be found. Property managers IPM, who oversaw the evacuation just days before Christmas and organised alternative accommodation for the 115 flats say an ‘an administrative mistake occurred at the hotel resulting in the resident in question being turned away’. More here.
No misconduct: Greater Manchester Police say officers captured on video restraining a suspected drug-dealer during his arrest acted appropriately. No complaints have been made following the circulation of the clip on social media, they say. The footage - shared on Facebook - shows officers appearing to pin a man to the ground as he was detained in Oldham in December. One officer appeared to hit the man to the head several times. GMP say body worn video footage was reviewed and 'no misconduct was found'. The man was arrested on suspicion of a drugs offence, three incidents of assaulting an emergency worker and a racially-aggravated public order offence. He has been bailed pending further investigation.
Grace period: Motorists flaunting new rules on Bridge Street will be fined from today, council bosses have confirmed. A new bus lane was put in place to target cars leaving Manchester city centre on December 28, but there has been widespread evidence of cars ignoring the new rules. Footage has been shared on social media of cars driving through the bus lane, which starts outside the People’s History Museum, before crossing the Irwell in Salford. The council has confirmed a two-week grace period has come to an end and fines will be issued to rule-breakers from January 11.
Regret: The Justice Minister, Dominic Raab, has promised to investigate after victims of rapist Andrew Barlow were not told he is to be released this month. Barlow, formerly Andrew Longmire, is scheduled to be paroled after 34 years behind bars. The head of the Parole Board has already expressed his regret that some victims were not told he is to be freed. But he says the responsibility for telling them was down to the Probation Service. Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Broughton questioned the Secretary of State for Justice in the Commons about the failure to notify some of Barlow's 13 victims. Mr Raab said he will take up the case as ‘support for the victims right through the process including to the parole of the perpetrator of serious offences is important’.
Shifted over
It’s one of the most historic corners of Manchester - and Shambles Square certainly has changed over the years. It's pictured here in 1983 and looks very different today.
This feature explains how, after the IRA bomb, the city’s two remaining medieval pubs - Sinclair’s Oyster Bar and the Old Wellington - were painstakingly removed piece-by-piece from their concrete setting near Safeway to a location 70-metres up the street.
Worth a read
If you’ve wandered down Stanley Grove in Longsight recently you will have noticed a huge bright ‘Howdy!’ sign beaming out into the darkness. It belongs to the suburb’s first Wild West themed restaurant, which our reviewer, Ben Arnold, visited on a rainy Monday night.
“Some of the messaging is a bit thrown together,” he writes.
“I order the ‘Sizzling Lone Ranger Chops’. The Lone Ranger didn’t ride a sheep, as I remember, but these are definitely lamb or mutton and thankfully not the animal he’s more synonymous with, who was called Silver.
“They’re very good, beaten flat, rubbed aggressively with spice and charred. Couldn’t fault them, and for 6.95 bucks, fine value. The rest was a bit of a mixed bag.”
You can read the full review here.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: The Old Wellington.
