Hospitals struggle to cope with flu surge

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

Today is meant to be Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. In reality, there is no scientific evidence for it at all and the idea was actually dreamt up by a travel firm to sell holidays. However, considering the amount of bad news stories at the moment you could be forgiven for being a bit down in the dumps. One of the main ones is the pressure the NHS is under, with hospitals and ambulance services across the country declaring critical incidents. Last week, The Tribune was told that Sheffield Teaching Hospitals was approaching one too, with Northern General Hospital reportedly reaching capacity due to a surge in flu.

As well as that, we have a news round-up including a worrying development on the Darnall allotments story we covered last year, the start of the Cupola Gallery’s annual Under the Bed sale, and a lovely flat at Park Hill.

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For Tribune readers, there’s a bonus 30% off the ticket price — just head to this link and use the code TRIBUNE30 at the checkout.

Catch up

For our weekend read, Dan looked into WorkWell, a new scheme to help the 75,000 people on long-term sick in South Yorkshire back into work. Over the last 50 years political parties in the UK have been competing to out-tough each other on benefits policy, but a new approach based on one-to-one support rather than punitive sanctions is now showing signs of promise. “Brilliant, no other word,” commented member Ruth Grimsley. You can read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two newsletters. In the first, Amy Cousens wrote about how “blue spaces” are becoming harder to access. The mental health benefits of being near water are now well known, but despite this, the UK is still one of the most restricted countries for access to water in the world. And in the second, we asked readers to tell us what they like and don’t like about The Tribune in our annual survey. You can still fill in the survey here.

Also over the weekend, our sister title The Manchester Mill published a major story about the row over grooming gangs. Suggestions that widespread child sexual exploitation in Oldham has been covered up led to calls for a national inquiry, not least from billionaire Elon Musk. However, little evidence of widespread grooming in Oldham has ever been found, and the credibility of the man making the allegations, campaigner Raja Miah, has been called into question.

Editor’s note: The Tribune got a nice mention in The Guardian at the weekend, in columnist John Harris’ piece about local news. In the piece Harris said that traditional local newspapers have been “serially mismanaged, cut and squeezed out of existence”, leading to 320 titles disappearing between 2009 and 2019. He pointed to The Tribune and our sister titles in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow and London as bright points in an incredibly difficult environment for local newspapers. It’s lovely to get namechecks in the national press, but the thing we need the most is your support. If you can, please join today.

The big picture: White peak ❄️

The Peak District has been looking stunning in the snow. This wonderful shot, by Instagram photographer Peaklass, shows a snowy Stanage Edge with North Lees Hall, the Grade II-listed stately home which is said to be the inspiration for Thornfield Hall, Mr Rochester’s home in Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre.

Your Tribune briefing 🗞️

Hospital pressures 🏥 The Tribune understands there is now very little spare capacity at the Northern General, with options being explored to free up more beds. “We’ve had days where I’ve arrived for a shift, and almost a hundred people are waiting to be seen,” one A&E doctor told The Tribune, who added that “things have been bad for so long, it’s quite hard to recognise myself if [they] are worse than last year”. Across the country hospitals are struggling to cope with an influx of flu patients, with several trusts declaring critical incidents.

Michael Harper, Chief Operating Officer at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust said: “We have seen a sustained increase a demand on our services over recent weeks but have not declared a critical incident and our hospital and community health services are running as planned. We have plans in place to manage surges in demand in the majority of instances including opening more beds and our incredible staff have once again gone above and beyond, over recent weeks, to ensure patients continue to receive care despite high demand, a rise in Flu cases and the adverse weather.” He stressed that people should attend appointments as normal.

Up in smoke 🔥 Another twist in the strange story of Darnall allotments. There were two major fires there over the weekend, on Friday night and then again last night, with firefighters called out to the allotments on Infield Lane, near High Hazels Park. On Friday, firefighters extinguished two separate fires involving sheds and outbuildings, while on Sunday a large amount of waste was on fire. 

But given the conditions — below-freezing temperatures, melting ice and snow everywhere — a fire accidentally spreading out of control seems unlikely. And the allotment holders have been evicted, meaning no one should be having a bonfire anyway. When we spoke to the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, they told us that both days’ fires are thought to have been set deliberately. So what is going on? Email dan@sheffieldtribune.co.uk if you know anything.

Our story about the allotments was one of our weirdest in 2024, including Martian rover-like cameras barking legal threats, claims of illegal dog breeding and the age-old question: how do you stop a homing pigeon coming back? You can read it here.

Ice storm ❄️ The snow and ice are melting as we speak, but the last week has drawn attention to how the authorities respond to very cold weather. When it snows, the city’s roads are gritted by Sheffield City Council’s private sector partner Amey. However, Amey leaves most of the city’s pavements untreated, meaning residents have to do it themselves using the grit bins that are dotted around Sheffield (some of which have run out). In response, the Sheffield Green Party has called for Amey to be given responsibility for gritting priority footpaths and cycle routes at the same time as roads during future cold snaps. We might be able to blame neoliberalism for that one, but selfish parking is entirely our fault. Over the weekend, police had to close both Winnats Pass and Rushup Edge, near Castleton, due to inconsiderate and dangerous parking, while gritting lorries and emergency services trying to reach an injured walker were stopped in their tracks due to 200 double-parked cars on a road near Edale.

Awesome walls 🎨 A huge wall mural in Sheffield city centre has been nominated for a major global prize. The 25-metre-tall Reverie by Peachzz (real name Megan Russell) was created last year on the side of the Cubo building overlooking Pounds Park. Commissioned by Sheffield City Council, last June the mural was highlighted by the website Street Art Cities as one of the best new murals, and it has now been nominated as one of the best from the whole of last year alongside murals from Argentina, Colombia, Russia, Spain, and Denmark. As well as Reverie, Russell is also behind murals at Walkley library and at the Alderson Road car park off London Road. To vote for her mural to win, visit the Street Art Cities website.

The weekly Whitworth ✏️

Cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on the situation at Northern General Hospital.

This week’s weather 🌥️

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say it will be less cold this week, with a lot of dry and fine weather as high pressure sits to the south. Frosts returning from midweek.

Monday ⛅ Bright spells and variable cloud with keen southwesterly winds. Patchy light rain later in the evening and overnight, when it will become milder. Highs of 6°C.

Tuesday ☁ Dull and potentially rather misty with drizzle in places. Lighter winds from the west and feeling milder with highs of 10°C.

Wednesday 🌤 Lengthy sunny spells after a cool start. Light southwest breezes and feeling pleasant. Cold and clear overnight with a light frost. Highs of 9°C.

Thursday 🌤 Little change with further sunny spells, light winds and the risk of frost early and late as skies clear. Highs of 8°C.

Friday ⛅ Bright or sunny spells, dry throughout with gentle southwest winds. Again, frost is possible overnight. A little cooler; highs of 6°C.

Outlook: Chilly into the weekend with some brightness. Many places dry with a continuing risk of overnight frost and fog.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook.

Home of the week 🏡

Whenever Park Hill is mentioned on The Star’s Facebook page, people queue up to hate on the divisive brutalist building. “£220,000 for a flat at Park Hill lol,” read one comment about this property last week. Well, we like it anyway. The stylish two double bedroom ground floor apartment also has two bathrooms and a south-facing patio opening out onto communal gardens. Are you prepared to put up with Dan as one of your neighbours? If so, all the details are here.

Coming up

This week we’ll be sending out two more newsletters to our 2,538 paying members. For the first, regular contributor David Bocking will be wading into the debate about electric bikes. Are they a menace — or the future of sustainable transport? And in the second, Victoria will be looking into the story of Ghost, an XL Bully who was shot dead by police last year. To get both those stories and more, join today.

Tribune tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please get in touch with us by emailing editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are happy to speak to people off the record, and we guarantee we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Things to do 📆

Art 🖼️ On from now until 2 February at the Cupola Gallery in Hillsborough is their annual Under the Bed sale, your chance to pick up original work across a range of art forms, with prices starting as low as £1 and up to a maximum of £350. The sale features artists’ old, early or experimental work (work that has been stored “under the bed”) that they're happy to sell off at bargain prices. The sale is open Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm and Sunday 12-4pm.

Talk 📸 As part of the programme of events complementing the exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood at the Millennium Gallery, on Tuesday, Tabitha Soren will host a free online talk about her Motherload series. Using images from her collection she will talk about the process of making photos of the sleep deprivation, emotional turbulence, isolation and physically draining rollercoaster that is motherhood. The one-hour talk begins at 6.30pm.

Theatre 🎭 Direct from its triumph in the West End where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy, Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is a unique and audacious retelling of Jane Austen’s most iconic love story. Men, money and microphones will be fought over in this irreverent but affectionate adaptation where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance. The show begins on Tuesday and runs until Saturday. Tickets are £10-£46.50.

Thanks to the Better Business Summit for sponsoring this edition. If you want to make a big change for your career or business in 2025, then buy a ticket here with the code TRIBUNE30.