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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
It's dark, it's cold and it's that little bit too far off Christmas to start getting excited.
So to cheer us up on this chilly day, I'm kicking things off with this beautiful image, taken by Andrew Stuart, on the banks of the Mersey earlier this week.
On to the news.
In today's newsletter, we're discussing the situation within the ambulance service, hospital wait times, an impending byelection and a special arrival at Chester Zoo. Let's begin.
So what's going on?
Patients are reporting 16-hour wait times at Wythenshawe Hospital’s A&E department.
Hospital bosses confirmed they are 'currently experiencing high demand for our services in our emergency departments', as Sophie Halle-Richards reports.
And they warned that while staff are 'working hard' to assess and treat patients as quickly as possible, there will be patients who will need to wait longer.
It comes after North West Ambulance Service medical director, Chris Grant, issued a stark warning to patients on Monday night following major pressure on the service.
Helena Vesty and Joseph Timan have been looking at the impact after 600 were left stranded without help on Monday night as they waited for an ambulance and 100 ambulances were queued up outside hospitals.
By Tuesday, hundreds of patients were still waiting for help.
The sight of ambulances queueing outside hospitals is sadly nothing new as paramedics have long-warned they are spending hours waiting to drop off patients.
One paramedic told Helena: “The reality is, due to the understaffed, underpaid and overworked conditions and the inability to retain staff due to stagnated wages over the last 12 years, lives are already at risk, people are already dying unnecessarily. Every day.”
Meanwhile, demand on the service has never been higher. More people are more sick - but there’s not enough staff, or beds, to go round.
There are regularly 1,000 patients in Greater Manchester hospital beds that are ready to go home but cannot be discharged - often thanks to understaffing in social care.
On Tuesday afternoon there were still 300 calls waiting for the North West Ambulance Service 111 service and more than 300 patients waiting for an ambulance.
Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central, said the situation is ‘extremely concerning’ and freezing weather is ‘exacerbating 12 years of Tory failure, which has left our NHS at breaking point’.
Angela Rayner, MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, said: “It is shocking that it is no longer the case that people across Ashton, Droylsden and Failsworth can call 999 safe in the knowledge that an ambulance will arrive at all, let alone on time and I know this will cause great concern to many of my constituents.”
But Bolton council leader Martyn Cox, the only Conservative in charge of a local authority in the city-region, said there is no 'quick fix' to the 'acute pressures' but NHS staff deserve our support.
"If Labour think there should be a fundamental restructure, then let's see their plan. I just don't think politicians pretending they've got magic wands can solve this by just throwing more money at it," he said.
Nurses set to strike
Thousands of nursing staff are due to go on strike tomorrow, but no Manchester nurses will be taking action.
The latest talks between the UK Government and the Royal College of Nursing broke down. The union is calling for a 19.2 per cent pay rise that the Government has said is unaffordable.
Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland now look increasingly likely to take strike action on Thursday with a second date planned for the following Tuesday.
Currently, no staff at hospitals in Greater Manchester are due to go on strike. This could be due to hospitals in the region not crossing the threshold for the strike.
It could be also be that the members in the Greater Manchester hospital trust have been not called to strike in the first wave. More eligible trusts are set to join the walk-outs in January if no deal is reached.
All out or running low
Parents are travelling miles for antibiotics as demand for commonly prescribed treatments such as penicillin and amoxicillin increases.
Among them is Kate Hazlehurst, whose four-year-old twins Harry and George both have tonsillitis and were prescribed Phenoxymethylpenicillin solution. But she found no chemist in Hyde or Hattersley had any antibiotics.
"Eventually after the doctor gave me a new prescription, I managed to find the tablets at Asda, the only place that had them but they said they were running low."
The shortage has come amid an unseasonably early rise in Strep A infections, as parents editor Emma Gill reports.
Health officials have lowered the prescription threshold for the drugs following an outbreak of the invasive Group A streptococcal infection (iGAS), which has killed 16 children in recent weeks. But it's left parents, whose children are suffering from a range of illnesses, struggling to get their hands on the medication they need.
One dad told Emma that he ended up ringing around 30 pharmacies before finding one with the treatment in stock for scarlet fever. Others said they too had been given antibiotics in tablet form as an alternative.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society says pharmacists are 'under enormous pressure' and 'struggling to get supplies' amid the outbreak.
But the Department of Health and Social Care says there is ‘no supplier shortage of antibiotics available to treat Strep A’.
To the polls
With just hours to go until the voters go to the polls, the candidates in the Stretford byelection are scrabbling to make their priorities heard.
But there is already plenty of noise - strikes, a cost of living crisis, a crumbling NHS, relentless Christmas adverts - meaning it’s not at the top of the priority list for some residents.
Reporter Damon Wilkinson headed out to Stretford to talk to locals about who they plan to vote for.
'I'm not bothered about all that mate,' one man said as he walked by the entrance to Stretford Mall. And it was a response Damon heard dozens of times.
The byelection has been triggered by the resignation of Kate Green - who is off to work as Andy Burnham’s deputy mayor.
Nine candidates are standing with Labour's Andrew Western - the current Trafford council leader - the frontrunner. Sophie Elkin plans to vote for him and hopes the constituency’s new MP will continue with the redevelopment of the mall.
“It's important to keep the rent affordable so the existing shops don't get priced out and I'd like to see investment in infrastructure so it's not just developers making money out of housing,” she said.
Mr Western's main rival is likely to be Conservative Emily Carter-Kandola. Other candidates include Lib Dem Anna Fryer; Green Party candidate Dan Jerrome; Independent Hazel Gibb; Christina Glancy of Freedom Alliance; Jim Newell of Rejoin EU; Paul Swansborough of Reform UK and Julien Yvon -of the Social Democratic Party.
The polls open tomorrow and the count will take place at Old Trafford.
Chinese Consulate update
China is pulling out six officials wanted for police questioning over the assault of a protester outside the nation’s consulate in Manchester, the Foreign Secretary has been told.
James Cleverly said he is 'disappointed' the individuals, including consul general Zheng Xiyuan will not face justice over the attack on Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Bob Chan.
Greater Manchester Police wanted to interview the official and five of his staff over the attack in October. The Foreign Office requested Beijing waive the diplomatic immunity of the individuals to allow the interviews to take place.
Mr Cleverly said the Chinese embassy, acting on the instructions of Beijing, notified the Government that the functions of the consul general has ‘come to an end and he has returned to China’.
“The Embassy has further notified us that the other staff involved in the incident who the Police wish to interview have either left the United Kingdom or will shortly do so,” the minister wrote to MPs.
GMP is continuing to investigate events that occurred outside the consulate on October 16.
No arrests have yet been made.
Weather etc
- Thursday: Clear changing to mist by nighttime. 1C.
- Trains: Disruption to train services across England, Wales and Scotland because of industrial action on Wed 14, then Fri 16 and Sat 17, 24, and 27. No service on some routes and severely reduced on others. Where running, only between 7.30 and 6pm.
- Trivia question: Chester Zoo was founded by George Mottershead and his family. But when did it first open?
Manchester headlines
Baby tapir: A rare Malyan tapir has been born at Chester Zoo, with the birth hailed as an important moment for the conservation of the endangered species. The zoo is one of just two in the UK currently caring for the Malayan tapir, which is listed as endangered on the International Union of Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. Named Nessa, the female calf was born to parents Margery and Betong, both aged ten, in the early hours of November 30. Weighing just 9kg, her arrival followed a 13-month-long pregnancy.
- Puppies: A woman walking through the streets of Manchester was offered a bucket of puppies by a stranger who said he couldn't afford to care for them. Rescue Me Animal Sanctuary received a call on Monday from dog wardens after it was reported nine puppies were in the care of vets after a 'terrible ordeal.' It was reported a woman had been approached by a man with two large husky dogs holding a bucket of puppies. He asked the woman if she would like to have one of the puppies - estimated to be just one week old. The man said he couldn't afford to keep them. The woman took all of the puppies and went straight to a vets in the city and the dogs are now being cared for in Liverpool, with the team of volunteers at Rescue Me asking for help finding the man who was giving the puppies away.
Damp: A comprehensive review of social housing stock in Bury is taking place in the wake of two-year-old Awaab Ishak’s death in a mouldy and damp flat in neighbouring Rochdale. Toddler Awaab died in December 2020. His father, Faisal Abdullah repeatedly complained to his landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing about the issue. Housing secretary Michael Gove said it was ‘unforgivable’ and has pledged to hold landlords to account. The Manchester Evening News has joined Awaab’s family in calling for legislation to stop further deaths caused by mould in homes. At meeting of Bury Council, leader Eamonn O’Brien set out the borough’s response to the tragedy and the measures being put in place to review social housing in Bury saying at this stage he had not been made aware of similar poor housing, but action will be take on damp, mould and condensation reported. More here.
Arrests: Two men have been arrested after a pig's head was thrown onto the roof of a mosque and community centre. Police carried out three raids in Stockport this morning and arrested two males aged 22 and 47 in connection with a hate crime outside the Heatons Muslims Community Trust on December 9. They remain in police custody for questioning. More here.
Worth a read
Adam Latham has not missed an episode of Coronation Street for years.
So what better place to propose than on the cobbles of Weatherfield?
The romantic Corrie superfan, 29, popped the question to partner Bailey Lister, 19, outside the Rovers Return Inn during a tour of the Corrie set on Saturday.
“It took about two-and-a-half months of planning, getting the rings and trying to keep it a secret," he said.
You can read the full story 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: 1931.
