The Yorkshire Post says: NHS cuts are a very bitter pill

Not only does the Leeds-based quango refuse to say when details will be made public but it says managers are working “to plan how best to deliver services to patients within their fair share of the NHS budget”. Just how disingenuous can you get?

This, for the record, is an area where day-to-day health services have been compromised by historic debts because successive governments have failed to acknowledge the true cost of providing care in rural and coastal communities.

This is an area which has already taken difficult decisions in an attempt to balance the books – obese patients and smokers have been banned from undergoing routine surgery. Now it’s being asked to find another £14m, the most bitter of pills.

And this is an area where elderly patients are already suffering additional anxiety as they’re forced to travel long distances for those routine services that are no longer available in their local community.

Rather than hiding behind bland platitudes that lack empathy, someone – whether it be Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt or one of the highly-paid NHS England managers – needs to spend time with health practitioners, and patients, in North Yorkshire and see the difficulties for themselves.

They need to front up, and work with the local community to deliver practical and pragmatic efficiencies, rather than expecting patients to accept a second class service that has the potential to compromise safety because of the mismanagement of all those executives – past and present – who have not fought for a fairer deal for rural areas. For, unless this happens, it is – in all probability – going to take a preventable tragedy for health executives to be brought to their senses.

Jess and her legacy

UNLIKE America’s Justin Gatlin, the two-time convicted cheat who won a controversial 100 metres world title ahead of Usain Bolt, the so-called saviour of athletics, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill was afforded a rapturous reception when she received a belated gold medal last night.

Six years after Sheffield’s golden girl was beaten in the World Championships by Tatyana Chernova who was subsequently found to have been blood doping, it was particularly fitting that Dame Jess – who is expecting her second child – was honoured in the venue where she won the Olympic title, and the hearts of a grateful nation, in 2012.

Though this presentation ceremony was better late than never, it does illustrate the determination of the IAAF under Sebastian Coe, a multiple middle distance champion who grew up in Sheffield, to use retrospective testing to not only eradicate the cheats but also to revise the record books accordingly. More clearly needs to be done – the mere presence of the aforementioned Gatlin undermined, still further, the credibility of athletics – but it’s also important to appreciate the legacy of Dame Jess, now a triple world champion.

The inspirational example set by the down-to-earth heptathlon heroine galvanised others to take up sport and it can be no coincidence that women’s sport is now flourishing in Britain, as exemplified by the successes enjoyed by the country’s hockey, cricket and football teams in the past year. Back on top of the world, Dame Jess changed her sport for the better and left a legacy of which she can be rightly proud. If only the same could be said about a certain other ‘winner’ this weekend.

Cotton wool test

THE reluctance of some schools to organise trips, or outdoor activities, for pupils does need to be placed in context. Some simply don’t have the time – or money – to do so. Others don’t want to fall victim to a pernicious ‘compensation culture’.

Safety must always come first – and this is borne out by the preparatory work undertaken by those teachers still prepared to organise special activities for their students. The undertakings required are onerous.

However, as schools chief inspector Amanda Spielman warns, there are, regrettably, some schools where the culture is to wrap children “in cotton wool”. This risk-free approach, she says, means pupils are being denied the opportunity to learn about resilience, a lifelong skill, and broaden their horizons.

Citing the barmy” example of a primary school which cancelled its sports day because of “dew on the grass”, the “cotton wool” test is an important lesson ahead of the new academic year.