I feel that old age coming on

I know this is an old story but the fine detail had previously escaped me: people in some parts of Cornwall can expect to live longer than others. According to the Office for National Statistics, by the year 2033, folk in the former Caradon, North Cornwall and Penwith districts can expect to live up to eight years more than the UK national average. In the former Kerrier, Carrick and Restormel districts its closer to four years more. If you don't want to hang around too long, try moving to Glasgow where the additional life expectancy by 2033 is a mere 0.1 year, or (nearly) 37 days.

Life is a sum of all your choices

Well done Cornwall Council, whose members will next week be told:

"For the 2011/12 school year, 5125 on-time applications were received for a place in secondary school. 5096 of these (99.4%) were offered a place in their first preference school. This meant Cornwall was ranked second of all local authorities in England for pupils being offered a place in their first preference secondary school. Five appeals were lodged by parents where pupils had been refused a place; two were upheld and the remaining three refused."

Interestingly the story is not so good for Cornwall's primary schools, where more than 600 parents failed to get their applications in on time and only 92% have got the school of their choice.

A suitable case for treatment

Anyone know where I can find out more about the NHS treatment of fee-paying private patients in Cornwall? The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust is clearly keen on this line of work, advertising on its website. Does anyone else spot any irony in this bit: -

"Our pricing policy is based on the principle that it should be simple, open and fair. Our prices are also highly competitive. We never forget that the main reason we are here is to provide all our patients with the best possible treatment and care. All prices are quoted inclusive of VAT."

All our patients?

A poor relation?

There's growing concern in Camelford that the town's leisure centre might be excluded from the "Cornish family" of leisure services included in the portfolio about to be handed over to a charitable trust. Cornwall Council tells me:

"The trust is still in the process of being established. A final decision on whether Camelford Leisure Centre would be included in the trust has not yet been taken."

Looks like the celebrations which accompanied December's £50,000 tide-over from County Hall might have been premature.

Council by-elections tell an interesting story

Full marks to Cornwall Councillor Jude Robinson for crunching the numbers - there's nothing quite like election results (as opposed to opinion polls) to tell us which way the wind is blowing. Of course, local council by-elections are full of anomalies, such as bizarre local issues, candidates known better for personality than policy etc, but give me results rather than forecasts any day. The numbers don't add up to 100% because not all parties (including Independents) contested every by-election, but tell us the average vote share when candidates entered the field.

Independents: 40%
Labour 36%
Conservatives 34%
Lib Dems 24%
Greens 18%
Mebyon Kernow 11%

11-year-olds invited to run Cornwall's hospitals

Listeners to this morning's Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Cornwall will have heard the management of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust telling us it faces a challenge "of Everest proportions" to achieve its goal of Foundation status, which would afford it greater autonomy on budgets, including the capacity to increase the number of fee-paying private patients treated at Cornwall's only large general hospital. The Trust's website includes this invitation to Cornwall's schoolchildren:

To become a Foundation Trust we need to sign-up lots of members. Anyone can be a member if they are aged 11 or over. Our members can vote for the Council of Governors or stand as a Governor. How involved you are is up to you. As a member you will:
* have a say in what we do
* be helping to keep our hospitals under local control
* receive invitations to free 'members only' events
* receive regular newsletters
* save money with the NHS discount scheme.

I'm really curious about the bit which says "helping to keep our hospitals under local control." Perhaps I'm missing something, but isn't the primary function of hospitals to heal the sick? So why does it matter so much about the personality of the management team? And will Foundation Trust members have more of a say in the running of our hospitals than non-members? I have asked the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust how many 11-year-olds have so far applied to become Foundation Trust members. Let's hope they belong to that cohort which got good SATS results.

Between a blog and a hard place

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that in recent weeks I've been blogging far less than usual - and might be in search of an explanation. Back in June the BBC discovered a security issue with its blogging software which made it vulnerable to hacking. The "temporary" solution, still in place, is that only BBC computers can be used for writing BBC blogs. As this blog is written in my spare time, from home (and of course, for no extra pay) I was stuffed. My solution is to arrive at work earlier, and leave later. I hope your appreciation index will rise appropriately.