(Yesterday, 2:20 pm)Andreos1 wrote The 78 follows the 2 from Shiney Row. 
For the next 4.5 miles, they follow each other to the hospital. 
They then follow each other again for the next 1.5 miles. 

You've got the Pennywell service dropping in and following the 2 and 78.
Along with the 32 which follows the same route. 

The 2 and 78 terminate in the same place. 
The Pennywell services then essentially follow each other and the 32 joins the convoy, before heading somewhere slightly different. But all on the south side of the river. 

They may all head along Chester Road because it's the quickest route to Sunderland. But we all know Sunderland is dead. Nobody goes there. 
Plenty buses do though.
So if the city centre is dead, what can bus operators do to encourage people to use the bus to other key destinations? Keep things as is? Have a convoy following each other for 7 miles or do they look at how to improve accessibility to key locations on the route?

You state patients won't use buses, but staff will. 
Any idea what proportion of staff live on the route (or within 1 mile) of the convoy of buses following each other along the quickest route in to Sunderland? 

Smaller than the number of over 65s who don't have access to a car in Sunderland?

I don't want to sound petty, but the 32 doesn't "join the convoy", it links the hospital with the coalfields. Unless you want to get rid of that as you don't like buses going down Chester Road

Anecdotally, Sunderland may he "dead", but it isn't and thousands of people are in the centre each day. Chester Road is the quickest route in to Sunderland from the west so it makes sense for buses to use it. I don't see how this is a complicated thing?

I've got no idea how many workers live within a mile of a route and that's that's the point in trying to make. It's obvious to anybody the only people that regularly travel to hospital....are the people that work there. So it makes sense for services that wouldn't usually go via the Hospital to do so at shift change times.