Other News In Brief

Woman Convicted Of Benefit Fraud

A woman has been convicted for claiming benefits she was not entitled to at Belfast Magistrates Court.

Margaret McCloskey claimed Housing Benefit totalling £2,322 while failing to declare she was living with her partner. She was given a Conditional Discharge for 12 months.

She is also required to repay any outstanding money wrongfully obtained to the Department for Communities.

Motorists Warned To Expect Traffic Disruption In Lurgan

Motorists are being warned to expect possible traffic disruption as construction work to connect the new Millenium Way Extension in Lurgan is to begin on Monday, 09 January.

The temporary traffic management required to carry out the works safely will consist of a number of road closures and localised lane closures.

The first of the closures will be at Flush Place from 10 to 13 January.

More details of the expected closures are expected to be released soon.

Works on the project is expected to be completed in April 2017.

GP Services In Portadown In Crisis - UUP

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie has warned that GP services are in crisis in the Portadown area.

The Upper Bann representative issued the warning after all of the Portadown practices recently held an emergency meeting and took the unprecedented decision to not accept any of the 5,200 patients from the Bannview Practice that is set to close is less than two weeks.

He said: "Whilst the Executive is pre-occupied fire-fighting the RHI scandal, it has let what started as a problem in general practice in Portadown escalate to a full-blown crisis. This has resulted in potentially over 5,000 patients having no access to a GP after the closure of the Bannview Practice in the town from Monday 16 January.

"This is totally unacceptable and is an indictment of the lack of vision within our Executive who are now so focused on trying to distract public attention that they have failed the people of Portadown by taking their eye off the ball on the most important issue to people – their health and well-being.

"The decision by all of the Practices in Portadown to apply for a temporary list closure with immediate effect demonstrates the sheer scale of the pressure already weighing down on our GPs. All practices in the town are already operating with a list size of over 2,000 patients per GP, far higher than the Northern Ireland average of 1,500. GPs in Portadown would simply not be able to take the Bannview patients without compromising the quality and safety of care to their current patients."

(CD)