Deployment support for army families
While soldiers are away there is a range of family welfare support available to both regular army families and to those of mobilised members of the Army Reserve. Army life means that soldiers may have to be away from their home and family on unaccompanied tours from time to time for an operational deployment, training or an assignment to a location that does not offer family support facilities such as healthcare or housing. The first point of contact for army personnel regarding any deployment issues is their Unit Welfare Officer. Families of regular army soldiers living in Service Families’ Accommodation (SFA) will normally keep their house for the whole period of an unaccompanied tour.
NHS 111 helpline 'dangerously understaffed'
Former NHS call handler Irah Tahir said that the 111 call centre she worked at was dangerously understaffed, with 75% of calls going unanswered. Staff were under pressure and had to give medical advice when nurses were unavailable. She felt the service was completely unsafe. ‘I'm not medically trained and I wasn’t equipped to make those decisions.’ Also staff were begged to do overtime or cancel holidays because of staff shortages. Derbyshire Health United, which runs the centre, refuted the claims. The helpline began in 2010 for those needing urgent medical help or advice. If someone's illness is judged to be an emergency by the 111 team, then an ambulance can be sent out. An NHS England spokesman admitted there had been issues and ‘regional variations’ with the helpline, but said they are working to ensure these are addressed.
NHS finances
It's nearly six months since the start of the financial year, a year that many believe financially will make or break the NHS. We don't know how hospital, mental health, ambulance and community services are shaping up. Last year foundation trusts finished the whole year with a £249 million loss. With non-foundation trusts included, this topped £800m. Trusts broke even after receiving a £250m cash injection from funding meant to be spent on buildings. The two economic regulators for the sector have not released the figures for the first quarter of April to June. A survey of a hundred finance directors by the King's Fund thinktank over the summer found that two-thirds were predicting deficits. The outlook was particularly bleak in the hospital sector, where nine in ten thought they would finish the year in the red. The NHS is the fifth largest employer in the world, with 1.7 million employees.
‘Good Lord, deliver us from successful bishops’
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, made a courageous intervention in a sermon at the consecration of three new bishops at St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday. Bishop Cottrell had this to say: ‘Good Lord, deliver us from successful bishops, from too-well-prepared or even too-well-organised bishops, from ready answer in the back pocket and PowerPoint-strategy self-sufficient, all-efficient bishops. The first job of a bishop is to be a teacher and evangelist: not a MD of CofE plc, or a safe pair of managerial hands just emerged slick and shiny from the talent pool - not even as a graduate of the latest whizzy business school offer of better-organised salvation; a storyteller, poet, theologian - a gospel person, with the good news of Christ on our lips and in our hearts, and this good news translated into the languages of the smorgasbord of cultures in which we serve.’
