The chief executive of a busy NHS Hospital Trust has described preparing for winter amid ongoing industrial action by consultants and junior doctors as “going into a really tough battle with one hand tied behind your back”.
He said: “I think we’ve cancelled more than 10,000 outpatient appointments here. We’ve cancelled more than a thousand non-urgent surgeries and a small number of urgent surgeries.
“What we’re increasingly seeing is actually we’re not cancelling things, because we’re not even booking stuff in any more for the strike days.
“It feels like we’re walking into a really tough battle with one hand tied behind our back.”
Mr Trainer, who has 12 hospitals under his care including the Queen’s Hospital in Essex and the King George Hospital in Ilford, said his patients and his staff were suffering because of the industrial action by NHS health workers. which is now in its 10th month.
He said: “It’s about the patients who are not getting access to the care that they need. And the second thing, it’s about the staff that we’re asking, at times, to work in some really tough circumstances.
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“I regularly meet our emergency department teams because they tend to bear the brunt of it. Emergency departments are the last unrationed part of health care, they’re the only place you can walk into and guarantee someone will see you. And as a result, we’re seeing real pressures piled on to them.”
Some 900,000 NHS appointments have been cancelled across England since December last year.
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Image: Matthew Trainer has 12 hospitals under his care
Hospitals now routinely do not book appointments for strike days, with the dates announced at least six weeks in advance. That means the true figure of disruption to elective care is likely to be much higher.
Mr Trainer added: “I think one thing that worries me is actually that we’re finding the strikes less difficult to cope with because we’re becoming so practised at them.
“The NHS is good at crisis management and responding to incidents. Actually, we now know how to stand up a strike rota. We know to take down all the planned care activity. This shouldn’t be something we’re used to doing.
“You know, this should remain a real outlier for us, to have cancelled 10,000 outpatient appointments since April is not normal. And we should not become accustomed to this as a way of doing business in healthcare.”
But this is likely to be the case for months to come, deep into another crippling winter.
The junior doctors and consultants have long mandates for strike action and show no sign of calling them off.
Their union, the BMA, will feel vindicated in its action after learning that the public is more than twice as likely to blame the government for the ongoing strikes than the doctors’ trade unions, by 45% compared to 21%, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by Sky News.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made bringing down waiting lists one of his key pledges.
But that is not achievable unless there is a resolution to what is becoming an increasingly bitter and protracted dispute. It also means trusts are not able to prepare for the fast-approaching winter.
Mr Trainer continued: “We had a really tough winter, last year. January was as bad as I’ve ever seen it in terms of the pressures. Primary care is also seeing huge increases in demand.
“They’re seeing more people than ever before, but they can’t keep up with the demand, and mental health services are also dealing with enormous backlogs for care and emergency care.
“So we’re trying to get ourselves ready for that. But what we know at the minute is that unless there’s some kind of resolution to this, we’re going to have to deal with that regular disruption of strike action.
“And I think we’re getting to a position now where it’s making it very hard to plan for what’s going to be the toughest period of the year in the NHS.
“We’ve got clinical staff trying to deliver good quality health care in some really challenging environments at the minute. And this is just adding to the strain they’re feeling and adding to the pressures on the NHS.”
The teacher of one of the Southport stabbing victims has told Sky News they “don’t want her to be forgotten”, 10 months after the knife attack in which she was murdered.
Seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe was killed along with Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar in an attack by Axel Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July.
Jennifer Sephton, headteacher of Farnborough Road Infant School, will be skydiving to raise funds for the Elsie’s Story charitable trust, which has been set up in memory of the former pupil.
Image: (L-R) Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were killed in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed class
“She’d been with us for four years, throughout her education,” Ms Sephton told Sky News, “and we just want everybody to know Elsie’s spirit.”
Describing Elsie as “such a determined young lady,” Ms Sephton said Elsie had “a real zest for life, and a sparkle in her eye all the time.”
She added that Elsie’s Story, which has been set up by Elsie’s family, is about “continuing that legacy.”
Image: Jennifer Sephton
In the aftermath of the July 2024 attack, the gates outside Elsie’s school were lined with flowers, balloons, and cards bearing her name.
Since then, memorial benches and a tree have been planted in the school grounds, providing pupils and staff with a place to “remember and reflect”, Ms Sefton says.
“[Elsie’s death] had such an impact on all our community,” the teacher said, “it’s had an impact on her friends, their siblings, our school as a community and our staff.”
Ms Sephton will be joined in the skydive by Adrian Antell, headteacher at the adjoining junior school where Elsie had been due to start.
“Elsie was due to come to us last September,” he told Sky News, “but what we’ve learned about her is that she had a wonderful impact in the infant school, and we don’t want her to be forgotten.
“We want her name to have to live on and to be thought of in a positive way.”
Mr Antell said they continue to support Elsie’s classmates, who joined the new school without her.
“There’s no instruction manual for this,” he explained, “every day is different, and every day is one step at a time.
“So all we can do as a school is to think about individual children and support them in the best way we can.”
Scientists from Kew Gardens are using a new study to track which trees bees prefer to try to stem the decline in our vital pollinators.
Bee populations are falling all over the world due to a mixture of habitat loss, climate change, and the use of pesticides, with a devastating impact on our biodiversity and food production.
But it’s feared that not enough comprehensive, global research is being done to understand the issue or find solutions.
Image: The study is building up heat maps of the most popular trees
Image: Non-invasive monitors track the buzz created by bees’ wing beats
UK becoming a no-fly zone
Researchers based at Wakehurst in Sussex, known as Kew’s “Wild Botanic Garden”, have begun placing advanced bio-acoustics sensors in some of their trees to track which ones bees favour.
They hope it’ll help urban planners know which trees to plant in built-up areas, as a way of combating the worrying decline in bee numbers.
Pollination research lead Dr Janine Griffiths-Lee said: “Nearly 90% of our flowering plants depend on the contribution of pollinators, but in the UK the population of flying insects in the last 20 years has decreased by around 60%.
“It’s really hard to be able to put a figure on the decline of our pollinators, but we do know that globally the number is declining.
“And with that comes crop yield instability and the loss of an essential ecosystem service.”
Their new, non-invasive monitors listen for the buzz created by bees’ wing beats, building up heat maps of the most popular spots.
Image: Bio-acoustics sensors are placed in trees to track which ones the bees are more drawn to
‘We’re facing twin crises’
Dr Griffiths-Lee said: “If you think about the tree’s footprint, it’s very small, but they’re huge 3D structures covered in pollen and nectar, which are essential resources of pollinators.
“So we really wanted to think about which are the best trees for bees for us to plant, and that can inform landscape planners, urban architects.”
Eight different species of tree were chosen for the study, including horse chestnut and lime trees, with a mixture of native and non-native species.
The scientists have also been gathering DNA from pollen, which also helps them to map which plants and flowers the insects prefer.
Wakehurst’s director, Susan Raikes, calls the 535-acre estate a “living laboratory”, and said the project’s all about searching for nature-based solutions to the impacts of climate change.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher, really. We know that we’re facing these twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change,” she added.
“We need to be able to understand, as the climate changes, which plants from warmer climes will be good here in the UK for pollinators in the future.
“If all of our native plants are struggling, then we need to find new sources of pollen – for us all to survive.”
Football pundit Gary Neville is to miss coverage of the Premier League finale on Sunday after being banned by Nottingham Forest, whose owner he recently criticised.
Neville had been due to commentate on Forest’s game against Chelsea on Sky Sports, which is being billed as a Champions League qualification shoot-out with both teams aiming for a top five finish.
But posting on Instagram, the former Manchester United and England defender said the broadcaster told him on Thursday that Forest “would not give me an accreditation or access to the stadium as a co-commentator”.
“I’ve had no choice but to withdraw from the coverage,” he added.
“I’ve dished out my fair share of criticism and praise in the last 14 years of doing this job and have never come close to this unprecedented action.”
Image: Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis (R) with manager Nuno Espirito Santo after the Premier League match against Leicester. Pic: Sky Sports News/PA
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Neville said while Forest “have every right to choose who they let into their own stadium”, it was “disappointing that a great club […] have been reduced to making such a decision”.
He said “it’s symptomatic of things that have happened over the last 12 months with the club”.
Sky Sports described Forest’s move as “an unprecedented and unwelcome step” and said it has decided “to present the game from Sky Studios in west London.
“As he was no longer able to commentate from the ground, Gary has chosen to not be part of the coverage on Sunday – a decision fully supported by Sky.”
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Neville has been highly critical of Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.
He described Marinakis walking on to the pitch and exchanging words with head coach Nuno Espirito Santo after the club’s draw with Leicester earlier this month as “scandalous”.
Neville urged Nuno to quit the club and his social media post further enraged Marinakis, who had threatened Sky with legal action over comments made by the pundit earlier in the season.
After Forest’s 2-0 defeat at Everton last year, the club issued a statement on social media questioning the integrity of video assistant referee Stuart Atwell after claiming they had been denied three penalties.
Neville’s response to that, comparing Forest’s actions to those of a “mafia gang”, prompted an apology from Sky after they had been contacted by Marinakis’ lawyers.