Sir Chris Whitty 'could have become Chris Whitby for the day'

How disappointing, though, that North Yorkshire County Council were unable to invite participation from other Yorkshire coastal communities which, like Whitby, fare less well in the spread and scope of NHS services.

Whitby has one GP practice and one NHS dentist.

It has a ‘health and wellbeing hub’ - which used to be a hospital - with very limited clinical services and no consultants, run by a Humberside trust, which, despite running a consultation to name four rooms, overruled the opinion of Whitby people to name just two of them with the generic ‘Heather’ and ‘Memorial’.

Maybe that was for the best.

They failed to spell ‘Streonshalh’ correctly in the consultation.

Last week, there was a prime opportunity for Chris Whitty to be ‘Chris Whitby’ for one day.

That would have been of real value to local people and to those in the town who work in health and social care.

It was a missed opportunity to visit Whitby and see what a community that has been left to go it alone looks like.

Linda Wild

Well Court, Whitby