Planning for restoration of services

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

No progress.

However, the quite high percentage of drivers who like to earn extra money by working extra days have seen that opportunity dry up almost completely due to the emergency timetable, so I would expect fewer Sunday’s to be ‘given up’ and more volunteers making themselves available.  We’ll see what effect on availability that has.

Thanks II - so we can only live in hope, although I guess that BBQs (even those officially sanctioned by the Trade Union!) will need to be socially distanced for the foreseeable future which may make them less of an attraction!

Frankly however it reflects very poorly on both sides that no progress is being made on this issue, year after year. Customers will draw their own conclusions and make their travel plans accordingly - worth bearing in mind when bemoaning the number of cars on the roads.

[CyclingSid]

local Medical Officers of Health were doing this all the time with diseases that they had to deal with regularly

; Medical Officers of Health became Consultants in Communicable Disease Control (CCDC). Under Public Health CCDC's cover a larger area and tend not to have the same local knowledge. Sorry I am of the age that thinks sitting at a computer is not the same as having local knowledge from physically working an area.

[stuving]

local Medical Officers of Health were doing this all the time with diseases that they had to deal with regularly

; Medical Officers of Health became Consultants in Communicable Disease Control (CCDC). Under Public Health CCDC's cover a larger area and tend not to have the same local knowledge. Sorry I am of the age that thinks sitting at a computer is not the same as having local knowledge from physically working an area.

We have indeed been doing public health as a medical discipline and a multi-level government function for over a century, and doing something before that (even if it was just a bunch of the local ruffians, egged on by an old wife, forcing you into the parish pest house). This system was restructured by the same 2012 act that created NHS England etc, and the local authority part (which ages ago had an MOH each authority) rearranged too. I suspect the implementation phase of both of these layers (i.e. ever since 2013) has involved a lot of intended and accidental cost saving.

The result was PHE (and similar devolved things), which lumped together a nominal 70 organisations in the hope that the product would be like the CDC in America. The CDC, having started badly by sending out a SARS-COV-2 test that didn't work, has been sidelined by the Donald (no shame in that, of course). Now the Boris seems to have done something similar to PHE, which had underachieved the scaling-up of the test capability. Before this year, the CDC had become almost the world's centre of public health science (the WHO not having its own), and British capability was reckoned by most observers to be not far behind. Clearly something has gone badly wrong in taking that underlying knowledge of what to do and acting on it.

I found it quite hard to discover what the current system is, and what happens here in the Royal-gap-in-the-map-formerly-known-as-the-County-of-Berkshire may be anomalous. For a start, for public health, Berkshire Lives! (at at least dies at an age-corrected rate a bit less than England as a whole). Each of the unitary authorities has a Consultant in Public Health, an executive post with a small staff (about six, I think). This has to be a public health professional, usually medically qualified but I think there is a postgraduate qualification route too. Public Health Berkshire sits beside all these, as a joint operation, with its own director. I'm not sure what the job's profile is, but recently that was Lise Llewellyn, who had a medical degree but a career as an NHS chief executive. She claims she was the Director of Public Health of each of the unitaries, which may be true if the law says they must have one. PHE operates nationally and in regions, and interacts with these more local bodies, most of which are at county level with each CC having a DPH.

PHE had a five year plan running 2020-25, which all looks very pretty and convincing. At least until you stop and think that if it's only going to be in place in 2025, where are we in 2020?

One specific thing that looks very odd, when you see Prof. Whitty talking about what's happening as if he runs it, is that the CMO has no institutional link to PHE at all. Both report to the DHSC, but don't seem to have any connection below the SoS.

[CyclingSid]

I spent many years working in PH in Berkshire, back as far as the Berkshire Health Authority. Lise Llewellyn was a qualified and experienced Consultant in PH. She was Director of PH in Slough for a time. When the changes occurred the six Berkshire unitaries decided they would have small individual PH teams in each unitary with a central shared service in Bracknell which fielded the specialist areas, the analytical team and the DPH. Lise was the first Berkshire shared DPH and with her political and PH experience was probably the person best able to try and herd the six unitaries into some sort of sensible direction.

The PH finance for local authorities was originally ring-fenced and once that finished money tended to go elsewhere, partly because there were some areas the LA members (in general) tend to feel a bit uncomfortable with.

It largely confirmed a paper many years ago in the New England Journal of Medicine. There is little political interest in PH, it takes too long to see results (15, 20 or more years) by which time somebody else might have been elected and get the credit.

[stuving]

It largely confirmed a paper many years ago in the New England Journal of Medicine. There is little political interest in PH, it takes too long to see results (15, 20 or more years) by which time somebody else might have been elected and get the credit.

Except ... I can think of circumstances where the results appear all too quickly.

[Marlburian]

To go off track and down a siding (to employ an analogy that others may have used), today's Telegraph Magazine has a long article called "City in Lockdown - How the Salisbury poisonings prepared us for a pandemic". A "much-anticipated new BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) drama" is being completed (rather too soon after the event, I think) with Tracy Daszkiewicz, the director of public health at Wiltshire Council, played by Anne-Marie Duff. To avoid local sensitivities, much of the filming was done in Newport and Bristol. Tracy now leads the council's fight against Coronavirus.

[CyclingSid]

Except ... I can think of circumstances where the results appear all too quickly.

I was referring mainly to Health Improvement. Outbreak Control should be done yesterday, and quite often involves the appearance of the magic money tree!

And for the possibly gory details of the current PH situation see CH4 on Wed https://www.channel4.com/tv-guide/2020/06/03/C4/30302363. Hopefully the innocent won't be caught in the cross-fire

[TonyK]

A golfer says he was verbally abused by a train driver who accused him of ignoring government advice on using public transport.

Glenn Macdonald, from Norfolk, said the driver swore at him when he got on a train with his golf bag after lockdown rules on the sport were relaxed.

Very much the exception, I suggest - the press are very good at finding the wrong in a sea of right.  And it typically takes two twits for something to blow up like this.

McTavish, MsDougall, Macdonald - the train driver must have seen my earlier post. I accept full responsibility for ruining Mr Mcd's ruined walk in the countryside.

[stuving]

SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) now have approval from Tuesday (2nd June) to fill all the seats in TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) (at least). They had been complaining that the airlines had been doing that, as approved by EASA^» (European Aviation Safety Agency - about), so why couldn't they? - TGVs' HVAC filters were just as good. That appears to be the reason they now have the go-ahead.

There is a poster version of the rules, but what was EASA's approval for air travel based on? The technical document is this COVID-19 Aviation Health Safety Protocol. It's a bit worrying that it only rates as "guidelines" - not a set of must-meet conditions. One of the key elements is a requirement to wear medical (i.e. surgical) masks, which is backed up by reference to an ECDC paper, snappily entitled Using face masks in the community - Reducing COVID-19 transmission from potentially asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people through the use of face masks.

I've not seen if or how this affects TERs in general or the peak-limiting measures taken in some areas, but the Paris requirement to bring a letter from your mummyemployer to travel in the peaks is retained.

[SandTEngineer]

Oh dear.....

This was the Governments briefing on 23 May 2020:

Marshals

We’re managing the transport network to make it as safe as possible.

This week saw the deployment of nearly 3,500 British Transport Police, Network Rail and Transport for London employees.

These marshals worked with the public to prevent services from becoming overcrowded.

From 1 June at the earliest – as we move to Phase 2 of the unlock – we will start to deploy twice as many marshals with the assistance of groups like the charity – Volunteering Matters.

These Journey Makers will help provide reassurance, advice and friendly assistance to commuters.

The last time we did this, at the 2012 Olympics, it was a great success.

While these are altogether more serious times – if we show the same public-spirited concern for one another, it will go a long way towards helping transport and passengers cope.

...and the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) response today.....

From the RMT: https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-warns-of-strike-action-over-transport-austerity010620/

RMT warns of strike action following Government plans to introduce voluntary unpaid workers on the railway network

RAIL UNION RMT today responded with fury after being made aware of Government plans to introduce a workforce of unpaid and unskilled ‘Transport Guardian Angels’ on our railway network.

The contract between the Department for Transport and volunteering charity ‘Volunteering Matters’ to recruit an unspecified number of volunteers to perform safety critical roles at railway stations had not even been discussed with the union before recruitment adverts were published.

There is no agreement between rail unions and any train operating companies for volunteers to be used in safety critical roles, which will include tasks like supporting passenger flow in and out of stations and guiding passengers through new designated social distancing safe pathways.

In an urgent letter to Grant Shapps MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), Secretary of State for Transport, RMT has called on the Government to immediately withdraw from this scheme or face the possibility of industrial action.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said:

“RMT is furious that the Department for Transport has done a backroom deal to recruit unpaid and unskilled workers on our railway without even so much as conversation with rail unions.

“These volunteer roles include safety critical functions that only highly skilled and highly trained workers should be undertaking. The safety of passengers and workers must come first and make no mistake RMT will vehemently oppose this action.

“I have today written to the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, demanding that his department immediately withdraws from this ill-advised collaboration.

“RMT regards this as a deliberate provocation and we will fight this with everything at our disposal including balloting our members for strike action.”

[rogerw]

I think that we could have predicted the response from RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)

[TonyK]

I think that we could have predicted the response from RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)

Just when things were beginning to calm down on the railways. Somebody in government must have seen this coming. Are they trying to stir up the hornets nest deliberately?

[TaplowGreen]

Mick Cash seems to spend his life in a permanent state of froth mouthed fury and righteous indignation.

He has a Cummings-esque ability to misjudge the public mood.

[Robin Summerhill]

I think that we could have predicted the response from RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)

Just when things were beginning to calm down on the railways. Somebody in government must have seen this coming. Are they trying to stir up the hornets nest deliberately?

Well it is the way that the bloke in charge of the country goes about things. And Boris Johnson lets him...

[stuving]

Except ... I can think of circumstances where the results appear all too quickly.

I was referring mainly to Health Improvement. Outbreak Control should be done yesterday, and quite often involves the appearance of the magic money tree!

And for the possibly gory details of the current PH situation see CH4 on Wed https://www.channel4.com/tv-guide/2020/06/03/C4/30302363. Hopefully the innocent won't be caught in the cross-fire

There's a long, and very depressing, article that was in yesterday's Guardian on the (now English) national public health "system" and how it got like it is now. It says that, before being stood down in March, the contact-tracing staff in PHE plus those allocated from local authorities (and the NHS?), totalled only 210. It's not clear whether the escalation to take that to about ten times the number was ever started, or even if I'm right to infer there was such a plan.