Shopping for patients
The Metrocentre is a busy place, the second largest shopping centre in the UK. Not somewhere you would expect to find an NHS success story.
But inside what used to be House of Fraser exists a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) where MRI scans, ultrasounds and echocardiograms are among the services offered.
It opened in October 2024, has seen 75,000 patients, and is now reporting among the fastest diagnostic times in the country – meaning people can start the treatment they need more quickly.
It was visited this week by Health minister Karin Smyth. She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Patients like it because they can park, it is less stressful – talking to the clinicians, they recognise that people are less stressed when they come here.
“It doesn’t feel like a hospital. It is not as busy, you haven’t got the emergency going on, so people know that they will be seen on time, they will be very quick, and can get on with the rest of their day.”
There are 170 CDCs in England, although the Metrocentre is the only one in the North of Tyne Combined Authority area. The closest ones to it are in Stockton and Workington.
Staff benefit as well as patients.
The Metrocentre CDC opens from 8am to 8pm every day and is staffed by more than 130 NHS workers who rotate between hospital shifts and the CDC. Clinical manager Gareth Davies said the hub offered a “bit of a relief” and respite from hospital work that “improves mental health and reduces burnout” among NHS staff.
And as for patients: “One of the first comments I got when we opened was ‘is this private’?,” he said.
Who pays?
The Teesworks story continues to grow. I say ‘grow’ but…
Three weeks ago I recommended to you an outstanding piece of investigative journalism from Private Eye that they had just made free to read. It’s an eight-page special report into How Britain’s flagship ‘levelling up’ project turned into a scandalous giveaway. You can click here to read it. It’s highly recommended.
Now, The Teeside Lead has belatedly received an answer to a Freedom of Information request submitted in July that shows BP, the lead operator of H2Teesside, cancelled their hydrogen scheme at Teesworks after refusing to pay additional remediation charges.
The word ‘additional’ seems strange because when Teesworks Ltd was restructured and the private partners received a 90% share it was said they would take on the financial risk and fund the remediation.
Journalist Leigh Jones said: “The 50-50 joint venture was handed over to Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney, and they were given the option to buy land for £1 an acre, because they promised to take on responsibility of remediating the polluted steelworks site.
“What this story shows is they haven’t done that, and instead are expecting inward investors to Teesside to foot the bill they said they’d pay. And after they paid, they told them to pay more. In the meantime, they’ve taken £124m out of the project.”
Who’s that with Keith?
Around 60 representatives from British business, sport and culture joined the Prime Minister’s three-day visit to China this week - including Keith Merrin, director of North East Museums.
He was there to promote the strength of the creative industries and the “rich and unique art, culture and heritage of North East England”, including the 12 museums and galleries managed by North East Museums, while advocating for the wider museum sector.
Keith said: “This is an amazing opportunity to promote the history and creativity of the communities of North East England as well as making connections with museums and cultural institutions in China – another country with a long and fascinating history and to explore ways we can potentially work together.”
Upgrades on tap
Northumbrian Water has announced “the biggest package of upgrades in its history” with a five-year £2.6 billion investment plan which will mean “cleaner rivers, fewer flooding incidents and a reliable and resilient water supply now and for generations to come”.
Nearly 800 projects are planned. Northumbrian Water shareholders are increasing their investment to fund them, but they will also mean a 6% increase in household bills. This equates to £30 a year for the average household - or 8p per day.
The alternative list
This is the National Year of Reading, and The Observer’s list of the best eight debut novelists of 2026 provided New Writing North with another reason why their planned centre for writing and publishing in Newcastle is much needed (see screenshot above).
“When a national media outlet publishes a list so lacking in representation of our regions and nations, it reveals the London bias of our literary tastemakers,” they said on their LinkedIn.
”Now more than ever, it is important that the stories we read, listen to, and watch, represent the rich diversity of human experience. This year is the National Year of Reading and the media, publishing industry, central and regional government, and literature organisations and charities, need to find a way to connect children and adults with books written by an array of talented writers from across the UK.”
The team at New Writing North put their heads together to produce a complementary Northern Debut Novelists 2026 list, which includes a few North East based writers, and mischievously said that their new centre will be big enough to accommodate a regional office for The Observer. Here is their list:
Heba Al-Wasity, Greater Manchester, Weavingshaw (Bantam);
Alys Cummings, North Tyneside, Murder Most Cryptic (Michael Joseph);
Stu Hennigan, Leeds, Keshed (Ortac Press);
K.L. Kaine, Yorkshire, Blood of Gods and Girls (Penguin);
Rebecca Philipson, Durham, How to Get Away with Murder (Transworld);
Louise Powell, Middlesbrough, Underdogs (John Murray Originals);
Gab Torr, Sheffield, Hard Place (Simon & Schuster);
Shaun Wilson, Cumbria, Malc’s Boy (Conduit Books).
Heads you lose
I’ve played a fair bit of sport in my time. And there’s always been protection available for my shins, my teeth and, in the case of cricket, some more vulnerable areas. But my brain?
One of my heroes, Gordon McQueen, died aged 70 after contracting vascular dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This week a coroner found it ‘likely’ that heading a football contributed to the brain injury which was a factor in his death.
I was at Wembley in 1977 when Scotland beat England 2-1 before jetting off to Argentina to win the World Cup (we didn’t). Jubilant Scottish fans invaded the pitch (I didn’t) after the final whistle and broke the crossbar. Gordon scored the first goal that day.
With his head.
The coroner’s conclusion prompted a blog post from Judith McMinn, the founder of Rezon, the County Durham company which make sports headbands designed to lower the risk of brain injury.
The Irishwoman, who before becoming an entrepreneur set up the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, believes the inquest marks a line in the sand.
“It leaves sport governing bodies with a stark choice,” she said. “Act on what we now know to offer players more brain protection, or knowingly allow the same harm to continue again and again.
“Sport’s response to brain injury has focused almost exclusively on detection and management after brain injury has already occurred. Concussion protocols, head injury assessments (HIA), removal-from-play rules, and concussion tracking systems all operate after damage has been done.
“Detection does not protect the brain. It only tells us that injury has likely already occurred.”
In work and homeless
Youth homelessness charity Centrepoint says “completely unprecedented” numbers of 18-25 year olds in work are now sleeping rough because they can’t- make ends meet.
Centrepoint case worker Amy Campbell told the Manchester Evening News that some young workers are spending the night at 24-hour McDonald’s, train stations, Manchester Airport, and on night buses.
In case you missed it
RIP Steve
Journalist Steve Pratt, a long-serving arts writer with The Northern Echo has died aged 77. His former editor Peter Barron said: “He was a gifted writer of a national standard and I always considered The Northern Echo to be very lucky to have him. He brought great quality to the paper, with a wry, humorous style and his passion for the arts always shone through.
“It is also telling that the arts community knew him and respected his opinion. He was prolific, loved his craft, and the many awards he won were testament to his talent.”
I’ll give it a miss
Melania, the documentary film about Trump’s wife which saw Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pay $40m for the rights (second highest bid was Disney’s $14m) opened in 3,000 cinemas worldwide on Friday.
Of all the things I have read about it, two stick in my mind: the director hasn’t directed a movie in 12 years after being accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, and two-thirds of the crew have requested not to have their names in the credits at the end.
Cancer and Alzheimer’s
People with cancer rarely get Alzheimer’s, and people with Alzheimer’s rarely get cancer. Now scientists think they might know why: certain tumours appear to send a protective signal to the brain that helps clear away the toxic clumps linked to dementia.
In experiments with mice, tumours released a protein that travelled to the brain and switched on its clean-up cells, making them much better at removing the sticky deposits that cause Alzheimer’s. Cancer expert Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University explains how this new discovery could point towards treatments that copy this effect in an article for The Conversation.