The government is facing a new call for more investment in Britain’s roads to avoid the possibility of traffic grinding to a halt. It comes from the RAC Foundation in response to latest figures that show overall traffic levels rose by 1.8 per cent in the 12 months to the end of April. Car traffic rose by 2 per cent in the same period.The figures show that traffic increased across the whole road network, with use of motorways growing by one per cent and traffic on minor rural roads rising by 3 per cent.

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Hospitals are being urged to make greater use of the skills of nurses and other non-medical staff out of hours, following research which showed new staffing models could improve patient care and bring junior doctors’ hours down to safe levels. The findings are published in the NHS Modernisation Agency report ‘Findings and Recommendations from the Hospital at Night project’.It shows that current staffing levels fail to reflect the marked drop in hospital activity levels after midnight. The Hospital at Night project is a collaboration between the Department of Health, the BMA, and other professional bodies. Its aim is to improve efficiency and to challenge traditional thinking about the staff needed to provide care out of hours. Its work has been given added importance because of the European Working Time Directive, which will introduce a maximum 58-hour working week for junior doctors from August this year.

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The Department of Trade and Industry predicts that the UK call center industry is set to gain around 200,000 jobs in the next 3 years. Much of the recent growth has come from the public sector. This article looks at the potential for boosting the delivery of public services from adopting call center technology.