27/07/2016 BBC Newsline

Good evening and welcome to the programme.

A BBC investigation has revealed that some local Health Trusts

are offering consultants lucrative overtime payments for extra work.

Last year, one consultant was paid around ?153,000 on top

of his regular salary.

The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act.

More from our Health Correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly.

To keep up with demand for services and the growing

hospital waiting lists, Health Trusts rely

on consultants to do overtime.

This BBC investigation reveals just how much some Trusts

are willing to spend.

Last year, the Southern Health Trust spent ?2.5 million on overtime.

Five consultants were each paid more than ?100,000,

with one doctor receiving ?153,000 on top of his salary.

The Northern Health Trust spent over ?849,000.

The Western Trust - ?335,000.

?267,000 was spent at the South Eastern Trust.

The overall figure is incomplete as Belfast, the largest

Health Trust, failed to respond to the request for information under

the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the health union, the BMA, the health service

is forced to pay overtime on this scale because not enough

doctors are being employed.

We would like Trusts to plan appropriately and to

hire more people.

We don't want people doing large amounts of overtime

and being more tired.

Any criticism has been directed at management and the government

for failing to manage the service more efficiently.

We know from dealing with the whole of the NHS workforce that planning

has been off the rails for some time.

It has been a big problem in nursing, it is a problem

in social care, and I suppose those who have been managing the system

have got to stop giving us some explanations about why this

deficit has occurred.

It is not just criticism about payments for consultants.

There is widespread condemnation about a system that is haemorrhaging

cash and agency staff.

A lot of the discussion was about overtime,

but that is hundreds of thousands of pounds, what about the millions

of pounds spent on locums, the crisis in terms

of general practitioners?

This is a major workforce problem here in Northern Ireland.

The Southern Health Trust said, due to demand, additional clinics

have been running at weekends and during bank holidays to help

reduce waiting times.

The police say they're not sure yet how a 45-year-old man fell out

of a window at an apartment block in Newtownards last night.

Two men and a woman are still being questioned about his death.

Martin Cassidy reports.

The 45-year-old died here at an apartment block

near the centre of Newtownards.

Emergency services were called to the Millers house complex just

before eight o'clock last night.

Residents say the man was in an apartment on an upper floor.

The police investigation is continuing and local people say

the man fell from a window onto a courtyard beneath.

I heard the ambulance coming around the corner and looked out and saw

the man lying on the grate that leads down into the car park.

The man was taken to hospital where he died from his injuries

a short time later.

His death has shocked the local community.

The initial issue for us all is one of shock,

almost disbelief perhaps, of what has taken place

here in our own town.

Not too far from where we are, a young man died.

Why did that happen?

Two men and a 29-year-old woman have been arrested as part

of the police investigation.

We are certain that he left through the window, the window,

the top window, we have no indication of the circumstances that

that led up to that, so we don't know if he left

on his own or if someone forced him out through the window

and that is the circumstances we are investigating.

We believe there are witnesses.

We know there are people who have not been in touch with us yet.

A postmortem examination will take place tomorrow to determine

the cause of death.

The association representing thousands of rank and file

PSNI officers has called for the Stormont Executive to make

it compulsory for anyone found guilty of assaulting an officer

to be sent to prison.

The Police Federation says fines and non-custodial sentences for some

offences aren't sufficient deterrents.

Our Home Affairs Correspondent Vincent Kearney reports.

This police officer almost lost an ear when hit by a brick

during trouble in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast last July.

Serious injuries are a regular occurrence during riot situations.

Many officers also suffer less serious injuries

when punched, kicked or pushed during scuffles with crowds.

Nearly 600 police officers were injured by some form

of assault during 2015.

That is an average of almost 50 a month.

That is nearly 20% of all frontline police officers.

The Police Federation says politicians and the courts must do

more to protect them.

We have had to stand up for our officers who are being assaulted

on a daily basis.

We want to make the public more aware and make the court take more

action against people who apparently would use weapons against police

officers in any way and stop them from doing their duty.

These officers are serving the public, and when we see almost

20% in a year of the frontline service being injured,

an awful picture of what society does to officers.

The Federation has asked for a mandatory custodial sentence

for anyone found guilty of assaulting a police officer.

It wants the new legislation to be part of the next

Programme for Government.

The Federation defends its call for police officers to be given

greater legal protection for members of other emergency services.

Why should police officers be treated differently to other

emergency services, nurses, doctors, ambulance and fire crews?

First of all, we abhor any violence toward public servants.

Anyone would see that there is no justification for assaulting other

public servants, however, police officers often go in to protect

people being assaulted.

Their job involves dealing with aggressive and violent people,

and they need some protection in the law to protect them.

No police force in Europe has this kind of protection.

But it says the high proportion of PSNI officers injured in the line

of duty means tougher laws are justified.

A historic warehouse in Belfast City Centre

is to be refurbished.

Developers have been given the go-ahead to

turn the 150-year-old building into offices.

Our Business Correspondent Julian O'Neill has more.

A new lease of life awaits.

Developers now have permission to turn this listed

building into offices.

Work will take about two years, and will combine the room

and the new with the addition of a Grade A office block.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society objects but Belfast Council

have ruled the plan benefits the building and the city.

There have got to be compromises made.

In order to preserve this building, we have had to allow development

to the rear of the building.

That might not be to some tastes, but to us it represents a fair

compromise and it is a fair compromise that will

bring great benefits.

This is phase two of the project, following the construction in 2006

of headquarters for Invest NI.

The warehouse will be refurbished after 25 years of lying empty,

and 17 floors of offices will be built on land currently used

as a car park.

Property agents say the demand for offices

in Belfast remains strong.

We don't have enough space to keep up with the demand.

When buildings like that come onto to the market, there will be

demand and it is great planning coming through on on the building.

We welcome that space coming onto the market.

There have been many warnings that Belfast simply does not have enough

quality office space.

That might currently be the case, but future need is becoming

much harder to predict.

There is the unknown impact of Brexit and whether lower

corporation tax will deliver as many new jobs as was initially forecast.

One of the trees at the famous Dark Hedges landmark has fallen

onto the road near Armoy.

It came down during the night, blocking

the Bregagh Road for a time.

The tunnel of trees became famous after it featured

in the series Game of Thrones.

Boxer Carl Frampton is preparing for the biggest fight of his career.

He meets Leo Santa Cruz of Mexico in a winner-takes-all

bout this weekend.

Thomas Kane reports from New York.

This is a fight that Carl Frampton has wanted for a number of years,

and where better for the contest to finally take place than one

of the most famous boxing cities in the world?

He is not taking his opponent lightly.

Santa Cruz is a world champion.

He is taller with a longer reach, but Frampton believes that moving up

a weight division has benefited him physically

and psychologically.

For a normal human being, four pounds doesn't sound a lot,

but how big a difference does it make?

It means a lot to me.

It doesn't seem a lot of weight but my energy levels have been

great, I am about to do a session here.

When I was making superbantamweight, you wouldn't like to talk to me.

I just wasn't enjoying training, but my energy levels are good.

I am eating and drinking plenty.

I have a couple of pounds to go, but I will be strong

and I feel good.

Have you been underestimated by the American boxing public?

A little bit.

They are only going by the Gonzales performance which was me

at 65 or 70% of my best.

Disastrous first round, but I won the fight pretty

comfortably after that.

I think they are underestimating me.

I think Santa Cruz is underestimating me.

I hope to change his mind in the first round.

My performance against Gonzales is why these guys are getting brave.

The Santa Cruz fight was because of that.

That wasn't the real me, this will be the real

me on Saturday night.

Now here's Cecilia with the weather.

Hello.

At least it stayed dry today.

It may not have been particularly sunny.

The rain is coming back in tonight, sliding in from the south-west.

It will be raining in most places by the end of the night,

and that will lead into a pretty soggy rush hour tomorrow.

Some heavy rain is likely on Thursday morning,

which will mean some areas of standing water, possibly even

some minor flooding in some places.

Mid-morning onwards, the rain will start to ease off.

It's an area of low pressure, which is slow moving

across the Republic of Ireland.

Rain will also affect southern Scotland, many parts of England

and Wales during the course of the day as well.

Central Scotland, though, seeing the best of the weather

with some sunshine.

Eventually we will see that patchy rain starting to ease

away southwards again mid-afternoon onwards tomorrow.

It should start to brighten up in the north, but it's not

going to be a warm day.

Temperatures in most places not much higher than 16 or 17 Celsius.

Not the best day for golf tomorrow, for the Northern Ireland Open.

It will be a bit drier, though, through Friday and Saturday.

Friday, it's back into a sunshine and scattered showers set-up.

A cool breeze, especially towards the North Coast.

One or two sharp showers to come as well, particularly

in the afternoons.

And it's similar through the weekend, so some cool nights.

Most places starting dry with some sunshine in the morning,

but there will be some showers breaking out,

particularly in the afternoons when one or two of them

could be on the sharp side.

So, I'm afraid, it's a cool end to the month of July.

That's it for now.

Our next BBC Newsline is at 6:25am in the morning during Breakfast

here on BBC One.

You can also keep updated with News Online.

Goodnight.