Thousands of hospital appointments are being cancelled up and down the country because of the Queen’s upcoming funeral, it is being reported.
The funeral, which is due to take place on 19 September, has been declared a national Bank Holiday. As a result, a number of NHS trusts have said that appointments will be postponed according to independent global media platform openDemocracy.
Whilst Covid-19 vaccinations and emergency appointments will reportedly continue, some trusts have said that they will be cancelling treatments including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, maternity checks and some cancer treatments.
Surgeries in Manchester have begun sending out messages to registered patients this afternoon, The Manc can reveal.
The City Health Centre, housed on Market Street above Boots, told its patients: “The practise will be closed on Monday, 19 September, on the occasion of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral.
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“Please order your repeat prescriptions as soon as possible before the bank holiday weekend.”
it continued: “If you require medical advice or attention that cannot wait until the practise is open, please call 111 or visit www.111.nhs.uk. For medical emergencies please dial 999.”
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Doctors at one central London hospital trust were reportedly told: “The day of the State Funeral will be treated as a bank holiday so please go ahead and start rescheduling patients.”
The news follows years of growing backlog, with data from the British Medical Association (BMA) in July 2022 showing the NHS had hit an all-time record high of people waiting for treatment with over 6.84 million people on its list.
The figures also show that 377,689 patients have been waiting over one year for treatment – over 365 times the 1,032 people waiting over a year pre-pandemic in July 2019 – and that 2.67 million patients had been waiting over 18 weeks for treatment.
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According to openDemocracy, a number of patients who had already been waiting for appointments have seen them cancelled again due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Following the announcement of the Queen’s death on 8 September, a text from NHS providers informed a pregnant woman that as a result of “unforeseen circumstances” her appointment had been cancelled and that another date “will be rescheduled shortly”.
Meanwhile, Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust told patients on Monday: “Following the announcement of the plans for the late Her Majesty The Queen’s state funeral on Monday 19 September 2022, some non-urgent planned care appointments/procedures across Bedfordshire Hospitals will be postponed. We will contact all relevant patients if their appointment or procedure is to be re-scheduled.”
Elsewhere in Liverpool, the Women’s Hospital has already warned patients to expect changes on the day of the late Monarch’s funeral.
Feature image – SnapStock / Royal Free NHS
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Sunday Times Rich List – Sir Jim Ratcliffe remains richest man in North West despite losing £6bn
Daisy Jackson
The Sunday Times Rich List has today been released, revealing that Sir Jim Ratcliffe remains the richest man in the North West, and third-richest in the country.
The annual list names the richest of the rich across the UK, and the combined wealth of the 350 individuals and families listed in 2024 amounts to more than the GDP of Poland at £795.361 billion.
As well as Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who remains on the Sunday Times Rich List despite losing more than £6bn this year, other famous names include David and Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John, and Lord Lloyd-Webber.
Representing the wealthiest in the North West are Michael Platt, The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family, and Home Bargains boss Tom Morris.
The billionaire Issa brothers who own Asda and founded EG Group complete the top five richest people regionally.
Local man Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who made his billions through chemical giant Ineos, has almost double the wealth of runner-up Michael Platt.
He recently ran the London Marathon at the age of 71 and secured a 25% stake of his childhood football club Manchester United.
The Duke of Westminster, who inherited his title and a huge land and property portfolio at the age of just 25, remains the richest person under 40 in the UK.
Now 33 years old and recently moved to Cheshire, his fortune now stands at £10.127 billion.
He’ll soon lose his title as the ‘UK’s most eligible bachelor’ though, with the Duke set to marry Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral next month.
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end. Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away.
“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire, and what that means for our economy.
“These may be harder times to create wealth, but The Sunday Times Rich List continues to unearth entrepreneurs building fortunes in diverse and often surprising ways. This year’s new entries include people who have made money from artificial intelligence and virtual worlds as well as plumbing supplies and teaching aides.
“We know many of our readers find such people — especially those from humbler backgrounds — very inspiring.”
The minimum entry to get onto the mega-rich list this year is a whopping £350m.
Teens could be recruited as train drivers to help ‘improve’ Britain’s railways amid ongoing strikes
Emily Sergeant
Teenagers could soon be recruited as train drivers in a bid to help “improve” Britain’s railways, the Government has announced.
Amid what have been ongoing strikes for the past couple of years now, and following on from the announcement back in February that ASLEF train drivers at several train companies and operators had voted ‘overwhelmingly’ to continue taking industrial action for another six months, the Government has now proposed lowering the minimum age to become a train driver from 20 to 18.
A consultation on the somewhat-controversial move is to be launched as part of the Government’s efforts to open up more careers in the rail sector to young people.
Ultimately, transport ministers believe this could “improve the reliability of rail services” across the UK.
Teens could be recruited as train drivers to help ‘improve’ Britain’s railways amid ongoing strikes / Credit: National Rail
This surprising recruitment drive announcement comes after the Government has revealed that the train driver workforce is projected to shrink without opening up more opportunities for new recruits in the near future – especially given the fact the average age of a train driver in Britain is 48 years old, and many are set to retire within the next five years or so.
Under the new proposals set to go out to consultation, the Department for Transport (DfT) will create a new pathway for school leavers to take up apprenticeships and train to join the profession.
If agreed following the consultation, the new regulations to lower the minimum age for train drivers from 20 to 18 could be in place as early as this summer, according to the Government, which will apparently “help set thousands of young people on track to a career in transport” once they’ve bid farewell to their school days.
The Government says its proposal to lower the minimum age would “build resilience” across the railway.
The Government has launched a consultation of the lowering of the minimum train driver age / Credit: Northern
Not only is the proposal said to form part of wider Government plans to create more opportunities where young people can gain the skills they need to succeed, all while generating more jobs that lead to a “productive” and “high-skilled” economy, but transport ministers believe attracting more young train drivers would help the rail industry provide a “more reliable service” for customers when other staff are off sick or on annual leave.
By opening up the sector to young people, the Government claims this would be “a positive step” and one that directly benefits passengers.
“We want to open the door for young people considering transport as a career, and this proposal could give school-leavers a clear path into the sector,” commented Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, as the proposals were unveiled this week.
We're asking for views on lowering the minimum age requirement to become a train driver in Great Britain from 20 to 18.
This could open the door to thousands of new opportunities for young people in transport.
“By boosting age diversity in the sector and attracting more drivers, we can help support reliable services while creating opportunities for more young people.”
If the proposals are introduced, the Government says all prospective train drivers, regardless of their age, will continue to be held to the same stringent training requirements as before to ensure the safe use of our railways for everyone.
To become a licensed train driver in the UK, trainees must pass mandatory medical, psychological, fitness, and general professional competence examinations.