Now you can follow the medical staffing divisions of the A24 Group on Facebook:-

Locum Services has published its new pay rates for UK locum doctors, effective from November the 1st 2009. The agency has vacancies for locum doctors in a range of specialisations: accident & emergency, anaesthetics, cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, ENT & ophthalmology, GP general practice, haematology, neurology, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, pathology, paediatrics, psychiatry, radiology, rheumatology, and ultrasonography.

LSUK is a division of the A24 Group and is amongst the leading UK locum agencies for the recruitment and placement of doctors. Once registered medical staff have met the agencies’ compliance requirements, Locum Services of the UK provides locum doctors for temporary and longer term assignments in NHS Trusts, private hospitals, GP surgeries and with other healthcare service providers nationwide.

It’s a 24-7 service 365 days of the year. Doctors and healthcare providers working with LSUK can contact a member of the agency support team at any time of the day or night. As a member of the A24 Group,  locum agencies offer high quality compliance, supported by advanced ICT systems and specialist in-house teams with expertise in recruitment, compliance, management of staff and customer support services. Its ICT systems ensures a fast and accurate match of a candidate’s qualifications, professional experience and location with the needs of each healthcare provider who requires staff.

Ends…

A24 Group Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe met the South Africa 2009 Homeless World Cup team, sponsored by Ambition 24hours, at Parliament in Cape Town to congratulate them on their excellent performance in the international tournament in Milan, Italy. The team came home with the Milan city cup. See the film! http://is.gd/3pa0g

News from the World Cup squad:-

Hi, my name is Gavin Lotz and I am the team manager for South Africa.  Football has always been one of my passions, and I’ve been working with the Homeless Soocer team since 2006, when the final was actually held in Cape Town.

I have one of the easiest roles really, I just have to make sure everything runs smoothly, and motivate the guys. I go to the training sessions and work with our coach to make sure they are fit and ready to win once they land in Milan.  I have to say I think we have a good chance – the lads are very enthusiastic and committed, and believe they can win.  That conviction gives them a lot of power.

This is the first trip out of Africa for me too.  I’ve been on a plane before, but I have to admit that even I am quite nervous about what I will find when we land in Italy.  Each team has been allocated a host or hostess, they will meet us at the airport, and until we land we don’t know where we are staying, where we are playing, or who we are drawn against.  We must just be ready to hit the ground running…

I am the vice principal of The Ark Christian School here, and two of the lads, Ephraim Maaman and Siphiwe Mayesela stay here with us.  They are both totally committed to this competition, and I have seen each member of the team develop in character and leadership skills since they have been playing soccer.  It’s a fantastic tool, it keeps them occupied, gets them off the streets, and gives them a chance in life.  It also gets them back into the community, gives them back their identity and their self esteem.

In my spare time I watch all sorts of sports, especially rugb,y football and athletics.  I’m a Manchester United fan, and my hero is Alex Ferguson, so if I can do a job that is even a fraction of that done by him I will be happy…

I would also like to thank all our supporters, everything you have given will be so appreciated.  We will do our best to make you proud.

For more information, visit

www.westerncapestreetsoccer.org

www.streetfootballworld.org/network/all-nwm/western-cape-street-soccer-league

www.homelessworldcup.org

News from the World Cup squad:-

Hi there, my name is Martin Africa, and at 32 years old I am the captain of the South African team competing in Milan. First of all I want to thank everyone who has made our trip possible. I can’t believe I am actually on the way, really this time, as I have had so many disappointments in the past.

Last year I was also chosen as captain, but I wasn’t able to get my identity documents through in time. This year I had a lot of help from Home Affairs in Cape Town, especially from Mts Jacqueline Englebrecht, so I had everything sorted, but then we had the problem with our airline tickets. Thanks to you guys, I can now believe I will be in Italy in a weeks’ time. It’s no longer just a dream.

We have been training for this event for nearly six months now, and we’re very fit. Our training sessions are daily, and involve every weekend. There will be eight players travelling, seven in-field players and one goalkeeper. When we play in teams it is four-a-side, with 7 minutes play each end – a full game is 15 minutes. It is fast and furious, so we have to make sure we can score accurately and quickly. We will be playing three games a day, and as the oldest in the team, the pressure is on me to perform… I am always getting teased about my age, and have earnt the nickname ‘old man’.

All of us come from the Cape Town area, and have spent the majority of our lives living on the streets. We have been involved in gangsterism, drugs and alcohol, and soccer has provided us with the drive and opportunity we have needed to change our lives for the better. Myself, I lived on the streets for 21 years, and was in and out of prison many times. I have been shot four times, attacked by a panga, stabbed by knives more times than I can remember, and was a member of the notorious 28 number gang.

Today I have put my past behind me, and I am looking forward to a better future for myself, and my son Renault, who is 4 years old. I want to save some of the money I will get as a subsistence allowance in Italy so that when I come back I can take my drivers’ test and get a good job. Football will always be my passion, and has been responsible, as well as my involvement with MyLifE, a charitable project here in Cape Town, in changing my life forever.

Thank you so much again

The A24 Group is delighted to announce that we are now sponsoring the South African football team to play in the Homeless World Cup, Milan 2009. We stepped in to fund the travel costs for the 10-man squad this week when I read that funding by the City of Cape Town had to end because of demands on their budgets in the recession.

The Homeless World Cup, Milan 2009, runs from 6th to 13thSeptember 2009, with 500 players from 48 nations.

An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless. Football for homeless people builds self-esteem: it brings purpose and direction to their lives. Homelessness is a terrible waste of good people, usually overtaken by events with which they just can’t cope. I know from personal experience. I was homeless myself for a brief period, and with my three very young children lived in a refuge before starting Ambition in 1996.

South Africa hosted the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town in 2006. The domestic league now involves 100 volunteers and activities in various communities of Cape Town and the Western Cape focusing on education, social support and HIV awareness for street children. The league has grown to involve over 700 players in 55 teams. Some 50 per cent of the players are currently living on the street, a number of them are in drug rehabilitation programmes and others in institutions for street people.

SAHSS (South African Homeless Street Soccer) has successfully used football to foster healthy individual development, teach positive values and life skills, strengthen education, and prevent disease through education (particularly HIV/AIDS).

You can follow the team day by day here on our A24 Group blog at http://blog.a24group.co.uk/. We’ll be posting details of their progress, results, team and other news. All our divisions will be engaged, including Ambition 24hours and the NS group.

According to a poll by ‘Nursing Times’ magazine, one third of UK nurses may refuse to have the swine flu jab. Of 1,500 readers, 30 per cent would not say ‘yes’ to the vaccine, while 33 per cent said ‘maybe’. Just 37 per cent said that they would definitely have the jab.

Of those who said they would refuse the jab, 60 per cent said their main reason was concern about the safety of the vaccine. A further 31 per cent said they did not consider the risks to their health from swine flu to be great enough, while 9 per cent thought they would not be able to take time off work to get immunised. Some 91 per cent described themselves as frontline nurses.

Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, said it was unfortunate nurses would ‘knowingly leave themselves at risk’.

The survey comes after health chiefs said doctors should watch out for cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome when the vaccine is introduced in October. The syndrome, which affects around 1,500 people a year in the UK, attacks the nervous system and can result in temporary paralysis.

From The A24 Group: Ambition 24hours, Nursing Services or the UK.