Hardly a `success' to cut 700 jobs

What an interesting take on life Kevan Jones, the North Durham MP who used to be a trade union leader, gave voice to yesterday.

Hospitals all over the country are responding to a widely publicised shortage of funds by slashing the numbers of people they employ.

One result is that, here in the North-East, up to 700 jobs will be axed at County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals over the course of the next three years.

Trust bosses lay blame for the cuts at a series of doors, not one of which is marked "how we manage the budget" let alone "how short of money are we".

Of course, one of the labels might be unfair while the other could risk biting the hand that feeds them, however inadequately.

To be fair, they do say the problem lies with hospitals being paid per operation rather than for services as a whole, which is bound to hurt and may sound like a budget issue to some.

They add that Government pressure to force health work into the hands of private companies, also diverts funds from their coffers. Which may also sound like a budget issue.

Another problem is the laudable, although competing in terms of funding and budgets, scheme to transfer treatment into more community-oriented facilities.

Be all those obviously financial issues as they may, though, Mr Jones still confidently declares: "This has got nothing to do with the trust's budget."

Then, even more unbelievably, the MP adds: "It is, in fact, a success story."

But where he sees success in reduced waiting times and transferred services, we see a feeble excuse for the inexcusable.

It's so feeble, his fellow Labour MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods plumps instead for more budget-type words, about a "shift in resources" and "possible over capacity".

It is surely a miserable task trying to justify the loss of 700 jobs anywhere in our region, but it's a bold man who calls it a success story.

We take our hats off to you, Mr Jones.

Let the good times roll

Our frequent support of transport initiatives that widen choice and help pull the North-East together, will be well known to readers.

So one might think backing for the proposal to link the East Coast mainline to Alnwick with an ultra-modern tram would be a given.

But while The Journal does support it, it does so only because the plan really is a corker.

Its advantages are many, but none more so than it would improve access to the popular market town for tourists and commuters, without boosting traffic on the A1.

At £1m, it is also cheap, thanks to the new tram being able to use old rail lines that are still in place. And the local railway society has most of the money lined up too.

No wonder then that we say, let it roll.

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