For military veterans, combat stress, has said it is unable to deal with new cases because of cuts in funding. From monday, former Service Personnel in england and wales will be re directed to the nhs for treatment. The charity helps treat servicemen
and women suffering from complex Mental Health problems. Our correspondent Chi Chi Izundu reports. Theyre known as tough and resilient, but being in the military can be an incredibly stressfuljob. Reports after reports have shown the impact it can have on the Mental Health of personnel, but now one of the leading charities for veterans Mental Health is warning, from monday, thanks to funding costs, it will now have to stop taking on new referrals. Combat stress says it receives around 2,000 referrals for treatment every year, but its income has fallen from £16 million to £10 million in this current financial year. Very, very reluctantly i think this is the only time the organisation has ever considered doing this we have decided that we need to make sure we can meet the needs of everyone who is currently in our system and we are not going to take referrals in england and wales where we have the greatest risks of safety, if you like, for the near future. The charity says it still receives more
than £1 million from nhs scotland, so can still take referrals from there, but 90 of its income comes from public donations, and with nhs england and nhs wales cutting their funding, theyve had to make tough decisions. All new referrals will now be redirected to the nhs, but a number of groups and charities have warned of a spike in the number of veterans taking their own lives. Well, the charity says that he significant chunk of its budget came from nhs england and when that was cut it had no choice but to make tough decisions. In a statement, the nhs said that providing the best ca re nhs said that providing the best care for nhs said that providing the best ca re for vete ra ns nhs said that providing the best care for veterans is its number one priority and it has rolled out new services across the uk and has seen around 10,000 people. A report only last year from the house of Commons Defence Committee said that it was a scandal that he small amount of the uks Health Budget is spent on
supporting veterans. It recommended, in fact, that he world class treatment centre, focusing on Mental Health, should be set up within 18 months. The veterans ministerjohnny mercer says that he does plan to have urgent meetings about combat stress problems. Thanks very much. At least 41 people are now known to have died from the coronavirus in china. The number of confirmed cases has risen to around 1,300. The virus has spread to europe for the first time, with three cases confirmed in france. There have also been three more people identified as having the virus in australia, bringing the total to four. 0ur correspondent Stephen Mcdonnell has gone to the chinese province of wuhan where the outbreak began. The authorities are starting to lock down this entire province of nearly 60 million people, where the coronavirus emergency began. Hospitals in wuhan have been
overwhelmed with the sick. State media has reported that one doctor treating people with the virus has died. Military medics have been flown in to help with the crisis, as have specialist doctors from shanghai. But the challenge remains considerable, with the infection rate ever on the increase. This is hubei province, where this virus emergency started. As you can see, it is pretty quiet, on the first day of the year of the rat. All these shops are closed. Theres pretty much nobody on the street here. Those who are out on the streets are wearing masks. And you can understand why. People are very worried, and people just dont know for how long its going to be like this, for how long they have to stay indoors or risk being infected with this potentially deadly coronavirus,
which causes pneumonia. Stephen mcdonell reporting there from wuhan province. A rescue operation is under way in eastern turkey, where an earthquake has killed at least 22 people. More than a thousand people have been injured. Teams worked through the night in freezing temperatures, to try to reach those buried under collapsed buildings. Rescuers say 39 people have been pulled from the wreckage, with more than 20 feared to be still trapped. Football clubs in the uk have been accused of being too dependent on sponsorship from the gambling industry. The sports minister nigel adams said teams needed to look at different sources of income, given the social problems caused by gambling. His criticism comes after a deal was announced between the fa and betting companies to show some matches exclusively on their websites. Last year, nearly 7 million of us used buy now, Pay Later Companies to help spread the cost of Online Purchases for clothing and shoes. Firms like klarna and clearpay allow
people to delay payment, or split the cost over a number of months but Debt Charities are warning that people arent being given enough information about hidden fees. 0ur Consumer Affairs correspondent Colletta Smith has more. Checking out, but paying nothing. Millions of us are now opting to spread the pain of a purchase. Some of the Biggest Online stores now give a choice to delay payment for an extra few weeks no extra fees, and with next to no checks. Unsurprisingly, its a popular click with shoppers. So, lets get shopping. I do think this scheme is great, because you could get stuck for money and think, oh, but, i really want this for an event thats coming up, but i know im going to get paid at the end of the month, and ive got enough money to stretch. Its making us feel like were getting more of a deal, and its bringing them more money. If youre sensible, and youre responsible, and you can keep up with your finances, then why not . We found out that payments through the biggest three companies have nearly doubled over
the last year. New zealand firm laybuy have seen a big demand from shops to get the option added to their online checkout. For the retailer, they are seeing an average order value uplift. People are spending more, then, because they can spread the payments . The average order values are significantly higher as a result of paying by laybuy, yes. Most of these companies have been operating for a few extra years down under, so the australian regulator has published this big review. And they found that 60 of customers are under 3a, and that some customers can become financially overcommitted because of it. The Financial Conduct Authority here have told me they dont regulate any firms not charging interest, but they are monitoring the markets. Debt charities are already concerned customers arent being given enough information. We want to ensure that the people who are using these products know the terms and conditions they are signing up to. If you dont know when the Payment Terms are going to kick in, or what charges or fees are going to be associated with it, you cant be making a wise choice. Not keeping up with repayments can
damage your credit rating, and with customer numbers growing so quickly, its a problem that could increase. Colletta smith, bbc news. Now with all the sport heres ben croucher at the bbc sport centre. Good afternoon. We start in johannesburg, where england have had a bit of a wobble on the second day of the final test against south africa. England just need to avoid defeat to win the series. Katie shanahan reports. A slight delay to the start of play, but with the outfield drying and the camera clean, we were ready to go. Although it was only a 45 minute wait, ali pope started making up for lost time and it wasnt long before he had his third 50 of the series, just 22 but already looking a key pa rt just 22 but already looking a key part of this team. At the other end, the england captain was also aggressive. He would soon have his half century. Joe roots 47th in test match cricket. The thing about test match cricket. The thing about test match cricket is that it can
change quickly. Any of the bat and a head to the wicket. Pope was my face says it all. As the sun arrived, so did the south african chances. This one missed by Faf Du Plessis is. This one wasnt. And he was at it again the very next ball. Sam curran gone for a duck and the south african head was up. England have lost another two wickets, and are now 321 for nine. Meanwhile, ben stokes should discover today if hell be punished for swearing at a spectator yesterday. The all rounder reacted angrily after he says a fan verbally abused him just after getting out. 0fficials injohannesburg have asked staff to be more proactive at spotting any incidents but are not increasing the number of stewards in place. Three of the womens top six seeds have fallen today at the Australian Open tennis but no such problems for mens world number one rafa nadal. John watsons been watching
at Melbourne Park. John . Yes, where huge numbers are currently watching to see if the australian nick kyrgios can take his place in the next round. He is up against a russian who took the first two sets, but his opponent took the next two to a0 match into a faith in deciding set. They have been out in court for well over four hours now. The winner of this earns the right to go on and face rafa nadal comedy beaten finalist last year in the last 16, who came through against his compatriot. Rafa nadal coming to in straight sets, culling this match is best of the tournament so far. Yesterday, we saw a number of upsets and there have been more today in the womens draw. Three of the top five seeds are now out. That includes the number two seed, the number five seed was beaten by the
former wimbledon champion andy number 16 is also out. Of course, the defending champion yesterday was beaten by coco gauff and Serena Williams cosmic procedure that elicited 2ath grand slam title was ended. We also saw Roger Federer given a huge work out on court last night. You just wonder, dont you, whether or not the winds of change are sweeping through Melbourne Park this year. It is going to be an interesting tournament. John watson in melbourne, many thanks. And the first of saturdays ten fa cup fourth round ties gets under way in half an hours time. Griffin park the venue as championship brentford host premier league high fliers leicester, on air on bbc one at 12 15. And theres also a special fa cup channel on the bbc iplayer which includes classic fa cup ties from the past as well as coverage from the weekends games. And theres all the highlights from last nights fa cup ties on the bbc sport website and app. But thats all the sport for now. You can see more on all of todays
stories on the bbc news channel. The next news on bbc one is at 6 10. Hello. Youre watching the bbc news channel. Lets get more now on the news that at least a1 people are known to have died from the coronavirus in china. The number of confirmed cases has risen to around 1,300. 0ur china correspondent, stephen mcdonell, is heading west out of beijing towards wuhan. He tweeted as he went, saying that chinese cities bordering hubei province, where the outbreak started, appear to be going into semi lockdown. He also tweeted this photo taken on board a high speed train heading towards hubei province. It would normally be completely full around the Lunar New Year holiday. And he also posted this video of screening at a checkpoint close to the border with hubei, where he and his colleagues had their temperatures checked before being allowed to proceed. He sent this report once
he arrived in the province. This is hubei province, where this virus emergency started. As you can see, its pretty quiet on the first day of the year of the rat. All of these shops are closed. There is pretty much nobody on the street here. When we came in, the police said we could enter this province, but they wouldnt let us back out. What this shows is that it looks like the authorities are preparing to lock down this entire province of 60 million people. When you look around the streets here, this is just one of the towns you come across when you first enter the province. Those who are out on the streets are wearing masks. And you can understand why. People are very worried. Hospitals here have been overwhelmed with the sick. There is footage on social media showing medical teams crying, worked to their outer limit. We have seen doctors coming in from shanghai to help. Military medics have also arrived to bolster the numbers. And still, the challenge is enormous, with the numbers going up and up. And people just dont know for how long its going to be like this, for how long they have to stay indoors or risk being infected with this potentially deadly coronavirus, which causes pneumonia. Kathleen bell is a british ex pat living in wuhan who is heeding the warnings to stay at home. She says that local government officials there are coming under fire for the way they have been dealing with the outbreak. There have been new policies put into place, and there has been a crackdown by the local government. I do think that heads will roll in local government. There is a chinese chat group, where local people are wondering about how they can build an Isolation Hospital within five days, but they still cant get enough masks to people. 0r tests to diagnose whether they have the virus, or not. The leader of hong kong, carrie lam, has declared the virus an emergency there. She held a News Conference earlier this morning. Translation the level has been raised to serious. Today, i would like to announce that we are going to escalate it to the topmost level, that is emergency. In other words, when our response level is reached at emergency level, the Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee will be chaired by myself, the chief executive,
and we have a command centre, so that we can get the views from the experts and we can come up with the strategies as well as the initiatives and, with this Public Health event, i think you will understand that sometimes we need to be very quick in making decisions. Therefore, having it coming under chief executive, we can then make the decisions for the society of hong kong. Earlier, i spoke to dr zhou xun, a professor of modern history at the university of essex. She gave this assessment of how she felt the chinese authorities were dealing with the crisis. Well, i heard about it. The new Immediate Reaction i had was that this is potentially risky, because people could go into hiding forfear of being penalised, and also the
social stigma the disease carries, but most of all its because people dont trust the Health System in china. They have heard that front line workers are being killed. People are saying, im not going to hospital because even the doctors cant protect themselves. How can they protect us . And this says something about the chinese Health System, which is inefficient and expensive and chaotic. In the past few years, expensive and chaotic. In the past few yea rs, weve expensive and chaotic. In the past few years, weve heard of lots of incidents about medical disturbances, basically violence against doctors and medical staff. Its because people have lost trust in the Health System in china, which cant protect people when they are
sick. And this outbreak, which is a prime example that the chinese Health System is ill equipped to deal with an emergency like this. There is no systematic Prevention Programme. Its basically reactive rather than proactive. You can imagine that, after sars, they would get their acts together and put in systematic Prevention Programmes, but they didnt. The only thing they did was convert Different Health units, but there is no systematic Prevention Programme so, as a result, when things like this happened and they run out of test kits and they run out of beds, they cant cope. There are not enough staff, enough resources to cope with
an emergency like that. The professor of modern history at essex university. The headlines on bbc news. The death toll from coronavirus has risen to a1, with more than 1,200 cases confirmed in china. At least 21 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in a powerful earthquake in eastern turkey. A charity offering Mental Health support to military veterans says it cant take on new cases because of a funding crisis. Rescue workers in eastern turkey are continuing to search for survivors after an earthquake killed at least 21 people and left more than 900 injured. The 6. 8 magnitude quake, which centred on the town of sivrice in elazig province, caused buildings to collapse and was felt in neighbouring countries. Gareth barlow reports. Lets get more now on the warning from the leading Mental Health charity for military veterans, combat stress, that its unable to deal with new cases because of a funding crisis. Im joined now via webcam by major richard streatfeild, a former commanding officer, who served in helmand, afghanistan. Thank you forjoining us. Good afternoon. The work of this charity will be done by the nhs, it seems. Is this a real problem, the fact the resources a re is this a real problem, the fact the resources are being shifted . is this a real problem, the fact the resources are being shifted . I think it isa resources are being shifted . I think it is a real problem. We need the expertise of combat stress to help the growing problem of veterans Mental Health. We know that 80 of vetera ns Mental Health. We know that 80 of vete ra ns d o Mental Health. We know that 80 of veterans do not receive Mental Health treatment on the nhs, and combat stress is a vital part of the
ability for veterans to get treatment. Can you explain your experience of serving, and that of your colleagues, and the impact afterwards . Your colleagues, and the impact afterwards . I was on one of the most intense tours of afghanistan in 2009. We had 800 firefights and about 200 roadside bombs which end off in ourarea about 200 roadside bombs which end off in our area of operations, affecting about 150 people. We were all graded as red on the Risk Management scale, the most severely traumatised. Many colleagues were killed and lots were injured. And being exposed to that level of trauma is a bit like being exposed to radiation. Some people get affected immediately, and the burns are very obvious, but for people it ta kes a are very obvious, but for people it takes a long time for the post Traumatic Stress to develop and then to come out. We need a process to be funded by the government where people are identified. I am pleased
to be leading a call for people to be screened and treated by charities like combat stress, who understand the military ethos as much as they understand the Mental Health issues that can come along with being exposed to trauma. What are those issues . How does it affect people . It is insidious. Post Traumatic Stress never really travels alone. It is combined generally with the substance at alcohol or drugs, substance at alcohol or drugs, substance abuse, either article or drugs, anxiety and depression. At the thing about veterans is they have been selected, they have been trained, they have gone through lots of experience that tempered their
character, they have been bonded through adversity, and they are used to coping with high levels of stress. And they can cope until they dont, and what we are seeing at the moment is higher levels of lifetime self harm, higher levels of suicide than we had ever seen before amongst a growing population, and what is absolutely required is a screening of those people and then treatment. Is it not possible for this process to work within the nhs overall, for people to go to their gp and to find the expertise, depending on where they live, rather than focusing it on one charity . It is a team effort. So the nhs repeats that are offered are very good. I have been the beneficiary of it myself. Getting to that therapy is extremely difficult. The nhs would prefer to treat
symptom rather than course, and this isa symptom rather than course, and this is a Different Community from the general public. They have Different Levels of tolerance for the stress that they have been through through their training. That is what we would expect of them. But that means that they are very bad about coming forward to get treatment when it is required, andi forward to get treatment when it is required, and i have paid tribute to the latest casualty with whom i served in afghanistan, jim davis, who killed himself two weeks ago. And his death was entirely preve nta ble, and his death was entirely preventable, utterly unnecessary. If he had been screened and treated in accordance with our trauma and Risk Management ten year screenings, i am sure he would still be alive. That is another tragic case. I think people might be surprised that the military itself is not taking more charge of what happens to people after they have served on these incredibly difficult tours but, in
terms of your own experience, do you feel you have come through it . Talk us feel you have come through it . Talk us through a bit of what you have been through. I feel a little bit like dr watson in sherlock holmes. I just go back when i need it and, undoubtedly, the issue of Mental Health comes and goes, because i am not only affected as a result of that time in afghanistan, but that was the big exposure, my biggest exposure to very, very traumatic situations. I have been exposed to other life stresses, but that has lea ked other life stresses, but that has leaked into my life, and it requires a co nsta nt leaked into my life, and it requires a constant management of your own Mental Health and, yes, i have come through it, and to that extent i came from a place where i was quite
low, but i managed to find a treatment. I know others have found a treatment and found it useful, but i want that to be available to everybody, not because they are itching for it but because they are given it. Thank you forjoining us. Some newsjust in from humberside, where police have confirmed that a man and an eight Year Old Girl have died in a house fire in hull, and well bring you more on this as we get it. In a statement, Humberside Police said. Emergency services are currently at the scene of a fire at a house on wensley avenue in hull. Humberside fire and rescue, ambulance and police were called at 7. 50am today to reports of a fire at a house. Emergency services worked to extinguish the fire
and get the occupants out of the building. A man was pronounced dead at the scene and an eight Year Old Girl, who had been taken to hospital, has sadly died. Harry dunns mother has urged the United States to show humanity and extradite the woman accused of causing his death. The teenager died after his motorbike collided with a car outside raf croughton in northamptonshire in august. The Us Government has rejected the uks extradition request for anne sacoolas, who left the country under diplomatic immunity. The business secretary, andrea leadsom, is the familys local mp. She met the Us Ambassador yesterday. The Prime Minister is very much on the side of the family in their desire to see justice done for harry, and all of us in government are working towards that end. Much more on that online. Trading standards is warning home owners that they could be at risk of losing large amounts of money if they sell their properties using so called quick sale Estate Agents. The organisation says its seen dozens of examples of people being exploited and losing tens of thousands of pounds from the market value of their homes. Radio as money box reporter Daniel Whitworth has been explaining whats been happening. They differ from traditional high street Estate Agents, which normally ta ke street Estate Agents, which normally take much longer to sell your house, four, six, eight weeks, longer, so the big selling point for these quick sale Estate Agents is, we will sell it quickly. Trading standards is concerned because, if you are a customer, by definition you need a quick sale, you need the money. You might be going through a divorce, your business might have trouble, either way, you need the money from your house. If you are using one of these quick sale Estate Agents, trading standards is concerned that some rogue Companies Might exploit that desperation and might basically
hit people for tens of thousands of pounds from their homes stopm terms of making them cut the price . Yes, because quick sale Estate Agents, like any state agencies, only make their money when you sell your home. If they say, we can lower this by 20,000 or 30,000, they are not bothered about that as long as they get the sale. Thats the accusation. The danger is, if you are the homeowner, you dont necessarily want that to happen but, if you are desperate for a sale, you need the money, so you might do things you are not totally behind. Did not obvious, if you need to sell your house quickly, the only way to do that is to cut the price, and thatis do that is to cut the price, and that is a calculation have to make . 100 , and in many cases these quick sale Estate Agents provide a service, nothing wrong or illegal about that, and it works for many people. I think trading standards is worried about some of the rogue elements within this part of the estate agent industry. We have
spoken to several case studies who have had the offer price of their homes lowered without their permission. Not only is that illegal, thats a potential breach of Consumer Rights legislation, but it is also, one lady we spoke to, marianne, the great and offer price for £250,000 for a three bed semi. The company she used dropped that to 230,000 the company she used dropped that to 230 , 000 without the company she used dropped that to 230,000 without her permission. Potentially, that is £20,000 and, if somebody looks at the house and says, hold on, it is 230,000, why are you advertising it at 250 . Have you increased it back to the normal price of 250 . She could have lost £20,000. Click a matter of what advice is out there . What are trading standards saying people should be doing . Never be rushed into a deal. Always go into these things with your eyes open, and if you can get independent legal advice. Now its time for a look at the weather with tomasz shafernaker. The picture behind