Prime Minister Boris Johnson has blown his chance on promised social care plan - Tom Richmond

Both the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers clearly have insight about the evolving situation in hospitals and, crucially, the staffing challenges.

It is clearly a very mixed picture. I’m aware of routine appointments and check-ups at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, having to be cancelled due to pandemic pressures.

Equally, there are GP surgeries already issuing winter flu jab appointments for the middle of this month when they do not know if this will be in parallel with Covid booster jabs or not.

And, with this £10bn in addition to the NHS annual budget of £140bn, health chiefs clearly hope to make a pre-emptive strike ahead of the Spending Review.

What is perturbing is that they made no specific reference to any social care plan, which is now held together by goodwill and little else.

This was a chance, in the wake of Boris Johnson’s scandalous failure to produce the care reforms he first promised on the day he took office, to make afresh the compelling case for a joined-up health and social-care system.

With campaigners like North Yorkshire’s Mike Padgham warning that a volunteer army will be needed this winter, pressures on hospital beds will only intensify if it becomes more difficult to release patients, particularly the elderly and those with mobility issues.

They’re not “bed blockers” – a disparaging term that causes great worry to all those who already fear, through no fault of their own, that they’re becoming a burden.

They’re the victims of a broken system in which taxpayers’ money continues to be poured into the NHS – often via grandiose announcements to curry favour with the public – with not a jot of thought for social care.

As such, I’d like NHS bosses to answer this point as they submit their funding bid: to what extent will the crisis in hospitals be eased if half of the £10bn sought was diverted to social care?

Until that calculation is made and assessed, short-termism by both NHS leaders and politicians will continue to let down all those for whom community care, in whatever form, is their lifeline.

IT was striking during a few days pootling around the countryside to see the number of disused churches out in the sticks.

Some were in better states of disrepair than others. Yet, given the shortage of affordable housing in rural areas, could the CoE not review its property portfolio and identify former buildings that could be converted into homes or apartments?

Taking its lead from the inspirational work by Prince Charles over the years, it could then explore the possibility of the conversions being undertaken by contractors committed to championing apprentices.

Not only would this help to revitalise some rural communities but it might – just – breathe new purpose into the Church’s wider mission as a force for good in the country at large.

One for the Archbishop of York to take on board, given how Justin Welby, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, continues to be enjoying his extended sabbatical, which continues, I’m told, to sit uneasily with a great many of his clergy.

TALKING of local contractors – and apprentices – let’s see who Chancellor Rishi Sunak appoints to build a swimming pool, tennis court and gym at his Kirby Sigston residence near Northallerton.

Yet, given Sunak and his family clearly appreciate the health and therapeutic benefits of swimming, it is to be hoped that the Chancellor – in his day job – is sympathetic to appeals to help fund public pools in the longer term.

They’re critical if every youngster is to be proficient in basic swimming when they leave primary school, one of the supposed requirements of the National Curriculum.

I’m also sure Sunak would not want to appear aloof when, to paraphrase one of his predecessors at the Treasury, we’re supposed to be in this together – or the current pretence that the Tories are the party of the many and not the few.

HERE’S a poser. Why is it possible for the public authorities in the red rose county to keep the seafront in Morecambe Bay so free of litter and detritus when Yorkshire resorts struggle to do so?

There’s certainly much to learn from our friends across the Pennines rather than blaming austerity which, correct me if I’m wrong, affects the whole of the North in fairly equal measure.

I can only assume bins are emptied more frequently there than here.

It’s certainly an issue that needs to be taken on board at the soon-to-be-unified North Yorkshire County Council, when it will have total responsibility for such matters.

After all, first impressions do still count.

NOTE to Virgin Media call staff who continue to “cold call” during the working day, despite repeated requests not to do so.

If your offers are so good, why are you so afraid to put them in writing – or an email – so their veracity and suitability can be checked out by customers?

Thank you.

COME on, Sainsbury’s. Why were you selling mince pies, and at discounted prices, on September 1 when some of us would just like to enjoy the last of summer, and then the Harvest and Whit seasons, before even thinking of Advent and Christmas?

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