⏩ The Gloucester Start: Thursday January 9th
Hospitals critical | Russian flag controversy | Warm space opens
Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s Start. Go carefully on icy roads if you’re stepping out this morning. Here’s today’s briefing.
There’s a lot of important information about health services in Gloucester at the moment. Here’s the latest summaries on that first:
🚨 A critical incident has been declared at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital (and Cheltenham General). It means you should be only go to A&E with a life-threatening emergency or serious injury. It’s been called amid ‘immense strain’ brought on by high levels of flu and norovirus. - Gloucestershire Live
↪️ You can see live A&E waiting times on the hospitals’ website. - Glos Hospitals
😷 Anyone heading to one of Gloucestershire’s community hospitals is being asked to wear a facemask, due to the volume of respiratory illnesses being seen at the moment. - Glos Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
📉 Health leaders in the county have welcomed plans which aim to cut the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment. The target by March 2029 is 92% of patient referrals will be seen in less than that time, currently in the county it’s 66%. - NHS Gloucestershire
🫶 Keep an eye out and check in on elderly or vulnerable neighbours, friends and family members. That’s the message during the current cold snap. - NHS Gloucestershire
🧊 Today’s weather: It’s a freezing start but a bright morning, with highs of 4C although the ‘feels like’ temperature (the bottom row in the above image) will only get to 1C at most.
👐 A warm space where people can get hot meals and support has opened in Matson and will run twice a week until March. Services like debt advice can also be accessed there. - BBC Gloucestershire
🏉 The Russian flag will no longer appear on the shirt of Gloucester Rugby player Kirill Gotovtsev. It had been on his jersey since he joined in 2021, as are the national flags of all players who have represented their country, but complaints made after it was spotted during coverage of last weekend’s game have led the club to remove it - and express their ‘disdain’ at some of the messages received from online trolls. - Gloucester News Centre
💔 Tom Voyce’s car was found in about 7ft of floodwater before his body was recovered nearby four days later, an inquest has heard. The former Gloucester player, 43, died near his home in Northumberland during Storm Darragh last month. - BBC
✋ Two new ‘engagement officers’ will be recruited to tackle problems like antisocial behaviour in the city centre, alongside the existing City Protection Officers. The city council is spending £200,000 on the plan. - Punchline Gloucester
❌ Gloucester MP Alex McIntyre voted against a national inquiry into grooming gangs, as did all Labour members. - Gloucester News Centre
🛣️ An ‘elite squad’ of pothole repair machines will be used to fix the county’s roads after a trial of several different methods failed to produce a single clear winner. - Gloucestershire County Council
💷 Tourism brought £300million into Gloucester’s economy in 2023, new figures show. - SoGlos
🏗️ The Southgate Street offices vacated by web hosting firm Fasthosts last month could be transformed into 22 flats. The business moved into brand new headquarters in The Forum and now a planning application has been lodged to redevelop their old Discovery House home. - Punchline Gloucester
🛏️ The Barnwood Holiday Inn has had a £3.5million refurbishment, including its Spirit Health Club. - Punchline Gloucester
🪑 There’s a job lot of free furniture - ideally for a community group in need - available from Gloucester Charities Trust. Know anyone who could benefit? 👇 More community items like this can be submitted to me for inclusion via this form - we’d love to hear them.
ICYMI: The most popular stories in Wednesday’s Start
⚖️ Age UK Gloucestershire’s ex-finance manager in jail after £460k fraud - BBC Gloucestershire
🔍 Dumped sign could be clue to flytipper’s identity - Gloucester City Council
🏆 Henley Bank School tops South West league table - Gloucestershire Live