16/01/2017 Spotlight

Tonight, we begin a week of reports going behind

hospital is minimising delays in treating older patients

in an effort to reduce pressure elsewhere.

Also on the programme: A misjudged jump which ended in tragedy -

Vincent Wagstaff died after tombstoning in Plymouth -

an inquest hears how he'd consumed a substantial amount of alcohol.

Delays expected; major roadworks get underway on one

And firefighting for the future - the hunt for new recruits

The health service is under huge pressure at the moment

and all this week on Spotlight, in a series of special reports, we're

going behind the headlines to find out why those pressures exist,

what effect they have and explore what the future holds for the NHS.

We start tonight at one of the key pinch points -

BBC analysis of health service figures reveal that 56,000 people

over the age of 80 waited more than 12 hours in A in England last

But here in the South West, we seem to bucking that trend.

Jemma Woodman joined the A team at the Royal Devon

and Exeter Hospital to see how they're managing it.

It's early evening at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

92-year-old Joyce Taylor has been brought into the emergency

I went downstairs and when I came right down to the bottom,

Joyce is among an increasing number of elderly patients coming

We regularly have patients, over 90 and almost daily over 100

in our department and the majority are made up of patients

The paramedics are going to give us a hand and as they do,

I'm just going to pop a monitor on you, so we can check your blood

To stop patients waiting for too long here in Exeter,

most are seen by senior consultants within minutes of arriving.

A lot of services are now put into predicting discharge dates

of patients and aiming to get towards that, so we get them up

to the medical unit before nine o'clock and they will be seen

by a consultant tonight rather than tomorrow morning,

so you save yourself 12 hours of hospital stay.

Joyce was close to being admitted but it is decided she would be

I don't think we are going to be of any benefit bringing her in.

It's what Mum wants and it's better for anybody, I think,

It's better to be in your own surroundings.

Judy is a retired doctor who used to work at the hospital.

My heart, from time to time, goes into a wrong rhythm.

What they are going to do is put two electrodes onto my chest,

pass a curren through my heart and hopefully that will shock my

It is the sort of procedure which used to need a short stay

in hospital, but it is now being done within the

By getting things done here, we are saving on a hospital

admission, so it's good for the patient, it's also good

for the trust as a whole, because that's one bed

that is available for somebody else to move into.

253 patients came to the emergency department on the day

we were filming in Exeter, but only 46 were admitted

Gemma joins me now. Quite often, we get e-mails saying it is all doom

and gloom with the NHS. This is positive. It was kind of what we

expected. The busiest day on wards. There was good patient flow, people

were being seen swiftly. The key to their success and that's not to say

they have extremely busy periods, but the key to their success is this

whole thing off consultants seeing patients swiftly and they go into

tree arch, they can make swift decisions about whether that patient

should be referred on or whether they need to go to a less emergency

unit. That is what we witnessed and sort it working. Consultants are

going out into the community and fortifying resources, venting their

expertise of air. This is one story, many more departments and you have

more tonight. One of the stories we are looking at is this so-called

postcode lottery of care and that is when one person in one region might

have access to treatment you would not elsewhere depending on the

budgets of those local trusts. One patient who was in acute pain but

had to buy his own drugs over the Internet and self-medicating, he is

not the only one doing it. Thank you.

And throughout this week, we'll look at the pressures on other

parts of the health services here in the South West.

And on Thursday, some of the region's key NHS decision

If you have a question or comment for them,

you can send them in now via email, Facebook and Twitter.

A man, who died after jumping from a ledge on Plymouth Hoe

in October last year, had long struggled with alcohol

and depression, an inquest has heard.

Former lab technician Vincent Wagstaff had drunk

a substantial amount of alcohol when he died after landing

on rocks near the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

A major rescue operation was launched when Vincent Wagstaff

jumped into the sea on October 13 last year. What started as an

attempt at Tombstone ended with the loss of his life. Vincent had been

on Plymouth Hoe with two other men and intended to jump into the sea.

But Vincent had changed his mind saying he wanted to do the really

high jump, this was the ledge. He asked his cousin to film the jump on

a mobile phone. He said he shouted to Vincent to stop but he went to

leap off the ledge but it wasn't a leap, he just told. Today some of

his family were showing the footage. It was a mistake, I could see it was

an accident, I could see in the way that he tried to run and jump that

it was a genuine accident. The court heard that Vincent had drunk a

substantial amount of alcohol, five times the legal driving limit. He

lives behind three devastated children, a partner, a brother and a

family and friends. We are left with a huge gap in our lives. It can

never be filled. He will always be loved and I will always miss him.

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death to which alcohol

contributed. A 46-year-old man's been arrested

after a stabbing in Exeter. The police helicopter was used

to trace the suspect in woods off Prince

of Wales Road yesterday night. Officers say it was an isolated

incident and the victim suffered A Plymouth school's to get

?1.6 million to expand. Pomphlett Primary will be able

to take on an extra 30 reception pupils thanks to the investment

from the city council. Money's also been set aside to help

Oreston Primary grow from September. Concerns are being raised

about the number of salmon Work has been done in waterways

over the last ten years to increase fish numbers,

but the Chair of the Dulverton Angling Association says

a year of low rainfall, A man from Somerset man has been

sentenced to 25 years in prison, after being convicted of sexually

abusing children since In what was described

in court as a shocking case, the prosecution said Andrew Margetts

was actually abusing victims but he couldn't be prosecuted

for that because he was below Our Somerset correspondent

Clinton Rogers reports. The prosecutioner called him

a disturbed child who had an obsessive interest in sex

from the age of eight. And today, Andrew Margetts, now 31,

was convicted on 23 charges, including rape, indecent assault

and false imprisonment. His victims, two girls and a boy,

were aged between six and 11 when the abuse took place

in the '90s. Throughout this week-long trial,

the court has heard that Andrew Margetts subjected his

victims to sustain the abuse Sometimes he would tie

up his victims or gag them. He threatened one of them

with a knife, saying, "If you tell anyone,

I will kill you." At the Crown Court,

the prosecutor said The jury told they were entering

a twilight world they might The NSPCC told the BBC, in fact,

a third of sexual abuse crimes against children are committed

by people under the age of 18, But not unheard of and at the NSPCC

we have had similar experience in rare cases of seven

and eight-year-olds also perpetrating very serious sexual

offences, but it is pretty rare. The judge said the lives

of the young victims in this He told Andrew Margetts, "You knew

what you were doing was wrong, seriously wrong," and sentencing him

to 25 years in prison, he told him, Inquests into the deaths of 30

Britons killed in a terrorist attack on a beach in Tunisia have

begun in London. Cheryl Mellor, from Bodmin,

was hit in the forearm and leg as her husband Stephen was shot dead

trying to shield her. The full inquest is expected to last

between six to eight weeks. Our reporter Emily Unia joins us

from the High Court. The inquest began this morning with

a reading out of all 38 names of the victims and a minutes silence was

observed. The first evidence came from the Metropolitan Police who

went out immediately after the attacks. They pieced together what

happened to create a 3-D reconstruction of the gunmen's route

across the beach into the hotel and at each point where the gunmen had

attacked somebody, a photograph of the victim appeared so we saw where

Stephen shielded his wife and ended up losing his life. We saw CCTV

footage of the gunmen getting out of a van so we know he arrived by land

not by sea. We heard how a Tunisian judge who conducted an investigation

into what happened established that local security forces could have

arrived earlier and stop the attacks but they wasted time getting to the

hotel. Next week evidence will be hard about each of the victims but

the families are keen to hear evidence from the travel operator

Thomson holidays because they want to know how much their loved ones

were told about the terror threat in Tunisia before they decided to go on

holiday there. Four months of disruption

to commuters and residents on one of Cornwall's busiest roads

is expected while Highways England carry out multi-million

pound roadworks. Overnight closures of the A38

in the Glynn Valley are already in operation, but the bulk

of the work will be carried out during the day with a one-way

diversion in place. A notorious pinch point. The Glyn

Valley for the next four months is the latest stretch of road works

that brings yet more disruption to many road users and locals. We

understand those concerns and we work closely with local communities

to ensure the disruptions are kept to a minimum. We have looked at the

diversion route when travelling westbound and we are looking at a

5-10 minute extra journey time. We have looked at how to minimise that

but working with local communities, that is the best we can get it. The

retaining walls need strengthening to cope with increases in traffic.

A1 make system is being introduced an overnight closures means lorries

will have to take a detail through the A 30. The overnight closures are

a huge problem. Yes, it does cause problems on local roads. Again this

is due to a lack of investment over many years in Cornwall, in

alternative routes when these problems occur. They may look like

nothing but this is a reptile fence and hundreds of slow ones, news and

frogs have been taken from this area and move closer to the river to

protect them from the roadworks. Local people will wish they had been

as well protected. Applications opened today for people

who want to become the first new full-time fire fighters in Devon

and Somerset in almost a decade. The service hasn't been taking

on new people due to budget cuts, but many of its existing staff

are now nearing retirement, so the search is on for

the next generation. Hamish Marshall has been to see some

of the potential recruits being put No two jobs are the same. You solve

problems and you help people. Just some of the reasons people want to

become firefighters. People like Megan. A musician hunting a new

career. It seems like it is right up my street. I like a lot of the

physical aspect, working with people and being in water and I'm making a

change to people's lives. Megan was among potential recruits on a taster

day as Devon and Somerset looks for its first full-time firefighters in

eight years. Builder Scott Thomson saw what life was like wearing

breathing apparatus. Different to anything I have done before. It was

really good, enjoyed it. The service needs experienced staff but many are

needing retirement. But officers are just as likely to be carrying out

safety visits to vulnerable people than fighting fires. Being an

operational member of staff is very different to how society perceives

it to be. It is not all charging in, gung ho into burning buildings.

There are 16 jobs going. Competition will be tough.

It's time for the sport now and the big game is getting closer.

There are only a handful of tickets left for Argyle and Liverpool's FA

Cup replay, which is now just two days away.

Fans queued again at Home Park from the early hours to lay claim

Around 2,000 more have been made available after temporary extra

seats were put into the Mayflower Terrace.

With demand outstripping supply, the club looked at ways to get more

And a generous gesture by Liverpool meant they could afford

The number, we thought it was 1,833, but I'm told that there may be some

positive news on that, that we may have squeezed a few

extra out, but I should thank Liverpool Football Club as well,

because we could not have afforded it if we gave them 45%

of the revenue and had to bear 100% of the cost, so they have agreed

to give up their 45% share of the revenue,

their share of allocation for supporters, which has

enabled us to go ahead, so it's a really sporting

While Liverpool were warming up for the replay with a small game

at Old Trafford, Argyle were back at Home Park facing Stevenage.

But a six-goal thriller didn't disappoint in a weekend of good

90 minutes without conceding a goal against Liverpool at Anfield.

90 seconds back at Home Park against Stevenage and Argyle were one down.

Two goals in seven minutes saw the lead reversed.

First Jordan Slew got enough on Jake Jervis's

And it was a Slew-Jervis combination that helped put the Pilgrims ahead.

The ball found its way to Jake Jervis who smashed it

However their lead was short-lived as the Borough made

The bouncing ball making life difficult for Luke McCormick.

Into the second half and a goal that Paul Arnold Garita can count himself

Oscar Threlkeld teed him up, but it was a swing and a miss

with the ball falling to Graham Carey on

The Irishman's vicious shot deflected on its way in.

A nice way for Arnie to celebrate extending his loan

Strikers live off goals and while new signing

Nathan Blissett went close to scoring his first for the club,

it was David Goodwillie who finally broke his duck.

Exeter City's last defeat came on the 19th of November

and since then, they have only conceded twice in eight games.

Reuben Reid booking in their first against the Mariners.

The hosts were feeling the pressure and a lapse in concentration led

The goal of the game came near the end when Ollie Watkins

The Grecians are climbing and up to tenth.

Yeovil's charge up the table has stuttered in recent weeks.

But things were looking up when they were rewarded a penalty.

High-flying Wycombe had other ideas though, and forced

This game finished 1-1 and Yeovil now without a win in six.

The Exeter Chiefs did exactly what they had to do

to keep their faint hopes of staying in Europe alive.

They beat Ulster 31-19 scoring five tries along the way

One was a penalty try and Mikele Campagnaro

and Thomas Waldrom both crossed twice, meaning the Chiefs

Exeter have a slim outside hope of taking one of the runners up

sports if other results go their way.

Going back to the Argyle ticket situation, they will go on general

sale tomorrow but only to people with a local postcode. They will be

snapped up. Now, a little bit more history

was made in Plymouth today as the ground was officially broken

for the new multi-million pound History Centre.

The project involves demolishing parts of

the Central Library and the Museum - much of which was built

more than 100 years ago. Plymouth a city that is steeped in

history and this afternoon, it took a step towards preserving that for

generations to come. The team behind the ?34 million history Centre were

on hand as the Deputy Lord Mayor put the first spade in the ground. We

have been waiting so many years for this. After 20 years of protest

meetings and trying so hard to get the money and at last we are here,

at last it is starting, it is going to be a wonderful centre. And if

these artists impressions are anything to go by, Plymouth culture

and heritage are in safe hands. Part of the museum and library are going

to be demolished. As you walk in you sense history with all the stained

glass and preserving that and opening up a little bit further and

then bringing history and art to it, it's going to be a very cultured

space. Meanwhile, looking at the back of the church... We have

graffiti on the wall with various dates on it. Quite a good mix of

dates, nice drawing of the HMS victory. The history centre is due

to open in spring 2020 as part of the city's 400 commemorations.

A small Devon charity, which helps cats and dogs in Afghanistan, has

been handed a massive financial and publicity boost thanks

The star of the TV series The Office is donating half the profits

from a forthcoming gig to the charity Nowzad,

It's providing a support for hundreds of street dogs and cats

Ricky Gervais has taken to social media to explain why he likes

They are the people that are doing stuff, I am just tweeting about it

and giving some cash. They are the people that do it and they are

amazing. Amazing. They are doing things I would be terrified to do

myself. We're now joined by Hannah

from the NOWZAD charity. What were your thoughts

when you found out about It means an awful lot. Not just the

donation but the awareness it has brought to our cause in Afghanistan

has been overwhelming. Tell us about the work you do and the difference

the donation will make. You have over 150 dogs we are caring for,

over 40 cats and six donkeys and that is where the donation will go.

Townie is one dogs you have helped. Looking very happy. She is. She is

one of the original dogs that we rescued about ten years ago in

Helmand Province. Tell us a bit more about the day to day work you do on

the ground. What sort of help to you provide in Afghanistan? There are so

many animal in the streets that soldiers and up caring for the dogs

or cats. When their tour is over, they cannot leave them behind so we

help the soldier bring them back home so they can live with the

animal. Good luck with your ongoing work and thank you for joining us.

Now the weather. Yes, the weather is to sell this week. A lot of cloud

about. A fairly mild weekend and that is set to stay the same. A lot

of cloud out there. This week will be largely dry. A cloudy start so

today and tomorrow will see fairly grey skies, but more brightness. A

lot of cloud across the UK. If few breaks in the South West but fairly

grey skies and that will continue tonight. High pressure trying to

push in from the continent and over the next few days, fairly cold air.

Temperatures below freezing across Europe, and by Wednesday we should

see a little bit more in the way of sunshine and that does mean

Wednesday, Thursday, we could see Frost overnight. Thursday we have

this front introducing cloud and then a bright day on Friday. The

cloud has broken out in places so some of us have seen sunshine, but

it has been fit enough for rain and drizzle. We have had some mist and

fog also, fairly murky conditions but it should be frost free,

temperatures of three or 4 degrees. A similar start tomorrow, fairly

grey skies, mist, fog, but a change further east and parts of Dorset,

Eastern Somerset may see some brightness to was the tail end of

the day. For the rest of us still keeping those cloudy skies. By

Wednesday we start to get the drier air feeding in. For the Isles of

Scilly, a lot of cloud, light showers but light winds. Quite mild.

In terms of our surfing, slightly bigger waves towards the north

coast. Flat and clean towards the south. We have the winds east to

south-easterly, the risk of brain and resort through the morning

tomorrow so the visible -- visibility good. We have a lot of

low cloud tonight and that should keep things frost free. The further

east you are, the cloud breaks up but foremost, another great day. A

bit of light rain and drizzle. Wednesday we get that Calder, air

from the continent and once it gets towards us, you can see a much

brighter day on Wednesday but temperatures starting to dip. That

means Wednesday night, Thursday we could see a touch of Frost. More

cloud through Thursday and Friday. Largely dry as we had through this

week and it does look like as it will stay settled towards the

weekend. Thank you for your e-mails and comments about the NHS. Keep

them coming and we will put them to senior figures on Thursday, but from

all of us tonight, good night. Let me see them hands up.

Let's do this. Glastonbury!

Make some noise! How you doing, Big Weekend?

Get ready. Go solo, Hyde Park.

Don't believe you. Secure your place at

the 500 Words Final, BBC Radio 2's writing competition

for kids with our honorary judge her Royal Highness the

Duchess of Cornwall.