Tucked away in this story in today's Mail it's revealed that Hartlepool people are having to wait up to 44 weeks for a coroner's inquest when loved ones have died. A big part of this appears to be down to the hospital changes which has meant, to put it bluntly, that more Hartlepool people are dying in North Tees Hospital which falls under the area of the lamentable Stockton/Middlesbrough Coroner Service.
I read on HTH how Middlesbrough Council wants to merge the Hartlepool Coroner Service with that of Teesside and you can virtually guarantee that, if that happens, it will be based in Middlesbrough. I can see similarities between this and the plans to merge Hartlepool and Stockton Police Districts where our own service is compromised to prop up an inferior service elsewhere.
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hartlepool-coroner-joins-calls-for-michael-sheffield-to-quit-1-5359620 (http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hartlepool-coroner-joins-calls-for-michael-sheffield-to-quit-1-5359620)
There was an investigation last November by scrutiny forum and a report issued by Middlesbrough Council
democracy.middlesbrough.gov.uk/aksmiddlesbrough/.../att1001137.
Some of the recommendations were:
1/That the Teesside Coroner engages with the Ministry of Justice and agree a process for engaging with the local press for the purpose of producing some positive publicity about the Coroner’s Service. Also that the Coroner’s office ensures that families are regularly appraised of the reasons of a delay when the inquest is taking longer than the expected time. (The national average should be a benchmark to alert families of the reasons for the present position which is beyond that benchmark).
2.As Cleveland Police provide the Coroner’s Officers for Teesside and Hartlepool and are managed within one unit. It is recommended that the Ministry of Justice give serious consideration to the merging of the Teesside Coroner Service with the Hartlepool Coroner Service and making the Coroners jurisdiction coterminous with the Cleveland Police support area and thereby improving the efficiency of the service.
3,The panel recognises there is not one solution to resolve the delays in Teesside. Consequently, the panel recommends that detail is presented to the panel in six months which outlines the time taken, backlog, staffing levels and action against each recommendation to assess the progress achieved.
"Nothing of any good has ever come out of this entirely artificial and continual linkage with Teesside"
Isn't that one of yours, TT?
Wise words, methinks. I can't help but be reminded of something else that was sold to us on the basis of the economic advantages only for visions of a political union to then be slipped through the back door.
I've found the people of 'Teesside' don't recognise Hartlepool as part of Teesside.
It's all about the political chattering classes and their eternal empire building lust, we're wanted for the numbers we bring to the club, anyone who experienced the dead hand of Cleveland County Council needs no finer example as to the inertia the town endured for twenty years.