we can trace that patient very quickly. we scan all the equipment so there should be no drug errors. some drugs look very similar, so we scan the patient making sure the right drug, the right blood product etc goes to the right patient and if they're going to roll it out to orthopaedics and other types of equipment we can trace those back in the future. bar—coding will reduce the average of an hour a day nurses spend collecting medicines and alert staff to those reaching their use—by dates. everything from screws used in knee operations to breast implants will be bar—coded so their quality can be monitored. about once a week tragically someone dies in the nhs because they are given the wrong medicine. we also have a number of operations where the wrong implant is put into someone‘s body and it has to be changed at a later date. if we use modern bar code technology then we can deal with a lot of those problems. one of the biggest advantages of scanlisafety could be in tracing patients when faulty products have been recalled.

nearly 50,000 british women had breast implants made by the french company pip when they were revealed to be at risk of rupturing. the patchy record—keeping had made it difficult to trace the patients at the time. police in cornwall are investigating what they say are the unexplained deaths of two men. their bodies were found yesterday evening at a block of flats in st austell. one man was in his early 30s, the other was in his 20s. keepers at chester zoo are celebrating the arrival hello. you're watching bbc news channel with simon mccoy. let's get more now on the announcement that a ceasefire will come into force in syria at midnight. the russian president vladimir putin said that the syrian government and the armed opposition are ready to start fresh peace talks. three documents have been signed.

the first document, between the syrian government and armed opposition on cessation of fire on the territory of the syrian arab republic. the second is a set of measures on control over the ceasefire regime and the third document is a statement on readiness for the start of peace talks on the settlement. and the turkish foreign minister said that turkey and russia will serve as guarantors of this ceasefire. let's here that statement. we are thinking of enforcing this ceasefire before the new year. the leaders have expressed their wheels. we are working on it. we are always in touch with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. we have brought the russians together with the opposition and we will be the guarantor of an agreement that will be signed by russia and the

opposition forces. we will have more on that throughout the afternoon. hollywood actress debbie reynolds, who starred opposite gene kelly in the 1952 musical singin‘ in the rain, has died a day after the death of her daughter, carrie fisher. the actress, who was 84, had been rushed to hospital with a suspected stroke. her son, todd fisher, said the stress of his sister's death had been too much for her and in her last words, she had said she wanted to be ‘with carrie'. david sillito reports. singin‘ in the rain, debbie reynolds was just 19. she'd not really danced before this but this performance made her a star. it was supposed to be an innocent, virginal little girl and certainly i was that. i think it was a tough deal for poor gene to be stuck with me, having never danced. it would have been far better for him to have a great dancer, but i worked so hard that i think

in the end when i look at that performance of that little girl, i think i did a good job. # all i do is dream of you the whole night through.# 64 years later, her death comes just a day after losing her daughter, carrie fisher. she'd been planning herfuneral when she was taken ill. her son todd said the stress was simply too much. among the tributes, bette midler, who said it was hard to comprehend. damejoan collins said she was truly heartbroken. that mother and daughter relationship, meryl streep and shirley maclaine gave us a taste of the ups and downs in postcards from the edge. but it was far from the full story. indeed debbie reynolds wanted to play the role but was told she wasn't right for the part. you want me to do well, just not better than you. what she was right for was old school hollywood song and dance. the show always went on,

even when she was abandoned by her husband, eddie fisher, for elizabeth taylor. my personal life is always sort of like this. the choo—choo train that says, "i think i can, i think i can, i think i can." i seem to marry very poorly. i have no taste in men. luckily for me god was good and i have two wonderful children. in recent years she played the role of grace's mother in will and grace, liberace's mother in behind the candelabra, and then this final moment, a mother grieving for her daughter. but if you want to remember what made debbie reynolds special, remember her like this. debbie reynolds who has died at the

age of 8a. the chairwoman of the royal college of gps has warned that patients could be forced to wait for more than a month to see their family doctor this winter. helen stokes—lampard claims surgeries are already "skating on thin ice" because of a shortage of gps and years of serious underinvestment. here's our health correspondent robert pigott. come on in. i'm doctor helen. what can i do for you today? winter is bringing increased demands on an nhs already under year—round pressure and gps have warned that their service is stretched desperately thin. they say any spare capacity has disappeared, leaving lengthening waiting times that could pose a serious risk to patients. firstly there just are not enough gps out there. we don't have enough clinicians in the workforce but also we haven't got enough nurses and other health care professionals, too, so the problem this winter is as bad as it has ever been, and that is a real worry. pressure on gps had intensified.

over 1.3 million patients visit a surgery every day and the number of consultations has rocketed to 60 million more per year compared to even five years ago. but in a recent survey, 85% of patients said they had a good experience and their doctor's surgery. gps have told the department of health that the nhs has been phenomenally successful, both in nipping disease in the bud and keeping alive huge numbers of people with chronic conditions like heart disease and chronic diabetes. but they warn this preventative care could now be undermined with potentially serious and even tragic consequences for future years. the people who will suffer are those with long—term conditions because we have got to prioritise those who are sick today. if however we are ignoring those with longer term conditions, then we are storing up problems for the future, increasing their risk in the long—term.

nhs england said: the royal college of gps acknowledged that more money had been promised, but said it hadn't yet reached the front line. it said similar commitments for extra funding have not yet been made in wales or northern ireland, although some investment has been promised in scotland. robert pigott, bbc news. dr youssef el—gingihy is a gp and author of how to dismantle the nhs in 10 easy steps. there is a narrative of progression, a

manufactured crisis in which the key factors are really cuts and privatisation and that is accelerating and meaning the nhs is getting worse. it is notjust a recycled picture, it is heading on a one—way route of privatisation, u nfortu nately. the nhs says services are on track to get an extra £21; billion the nhs says services are on track to get an extra £21; billion in real terms. is that the answer? we need more funding and investment, as a report from deloitte pointed out. gp budget, as a proportion of the overall budget, is down. that will help. we need to be careful with the accounting tricks with these numbers because we heard during the general election about an extra £8 billion for the nhs and we know that translates as £22 billion in cuts to meet the funding gap. we need to analyse those figures carefully. we need more funding

but ultimately we are going to need to look at these transformation and sustainability plans and the us model of integrated care that had been brought in because they've isn't sufficient evidence for this and it is leading to the closures of hundreds of surgeries. we have had months of warnings that gps surgeries and the nhs are skating on thin ice. what does that mean, as a doctor, in surgery terms? how does it manifest on a daily basis? it means for all nhs staff, whether they are in the community or hospitals, they are under resourced, underfunded and overstretched, so it is leading to burnout for nhs staff and for patients, we can't deliver the care we would like to. this is a manufactured situation and we can reverse this. the key thing is restoring the nhs as a publicly run and publicly provided health system.

a difficult year for gps with industrial action which you have had to back away from to some degree. are you sensing that the public has got to a point they've heard enough about doctors complaints and they want to get on with it? i think doctors are a soft target, certainly the way it is presented in the media particularly. unfortunately the real factors are the kind of factors we have just talked about, such as cuts, not enough funding and privatisation. these are the root causes that are not mentioned and it is easy to deflect the blame onto nhs staff or patients in terms of an ageing population or rising demand. that is a situation across advanced economies through the world and the nhs as a public health care system is one of the most cost—effective systems. we need to ask ourselves what kind of health care system do we value?

child offenders could be given life—long anonymity under new plans being considered by the government. a review into the youth justice system found that a ban on naming criminals under the age of 18 would help to reduce re—offending rates. but some critics of the idea say the most serious offenders should be named in the public interest. penelope gibbs is the vice chair of the campaign group standing committee for youth justice. she explained why they were supporting the proposals. the problem is that there are very few children in this country who are convicted in court who are then named publicly and their photos are available on the internet forevermore. it is also children who commit anti—social behaviour can also be very easily named, and our concern is about future victims really and about society. these are children. and because they are children or teenagers we need to give them the maximum possible chance of rehabilitation. and there is good evidence the kind of

vilification that is associated with a child who has committed a very serious crime being identified destroys those chances of rehabilitation. 0bviously they may be still rehabilitated, but the chances are much less if you identify that child. police have launched an investigation after the bodies of two men were found at a property in cornwall. the deaths in st austell are being treated as unexplained. eleanor parkinson reports. the bodies of the two men were found in a rented flat in this building yesterday afternoon. the police haven't revealed how they died but say their deaths are unexplained. officers from plymouth have been drafted in, along with a forensic team and a number of fire officers. this block of flats has been sealed off while officers search around the building and inside. all the police will say at the moment is that one of the men is a 31—year—old local man from saint austell and the other man is understood to be in his 20s

and has yet to be formally identified. i just feel for the families. i don't know exactly what has happened. it is appalling that something like this can happen. the flat is owned by a housing association and is yards from the school and nursery. devon and cornwall police say their investigations are at a very early stage. russian president vladimir putin has announced a ceasefire between the government and rebels to come into force at midnight tonight. hollywood actress debbie reynolds has died the day after the death of her daughter, carrie fisher. she is believed to have suffered a stroke. the is warning patients could be forced to wait more than a month to see their doctor this winter. —— the royal college of the. the nhs in england is to put

bar codes on medicines and medical equipment. it's hoped that the scheme will reduce the likelihood of patients being given the wrong treatment and make it easier to trace people if they are. sangita myska has the story. an angiogram designed to reveal the condition of patients' blood vessels is carried out in salisbury. as part of the piloting of the scanlisafety scheme, bar codes on medication and equipment record the materials used to treat patients, the time and place of the procedure and the name of the medical staff taking part. we can trace that patient very quickly. we scan all the equipment so there should be no drug errors. some drugs look very similar, so we scan the patient making sure the right drug, the right blood product etc goes to the right patient and if they're going to roll it out to orthopaedics and other types of equipment we can trace those back in the future. bar—coding will reduce the average of an hour a day nurses spend collecting medicines and alert staff to those reaching their use—by dates.

everything from screws used in knee operations to breast implants will be bar—coded so their quality can be monitored. about once a week tragically someone dies in the nhs because they are given the wrong medicine. we also have a number of operations where the wrong implant is put into someone's body and it has to be changed at a later date. if we use modern bar code technology then we can deal with a lot of those problems. one of the biggest advantages of scanlisafety could be in tracing patients when faulty products have been recalled. nearly 50,000 british women had breast implants made by the french company pip when they were revealed to be at risk of rupturing. the patchy record—keeping had made it difficult to trace the patients at the time. lets get more on the ceasefire deal

between russia and turkey and iran. we have been following developments in lebanon. how significant is this being seen their? this seems to be an important announcement today, especially as it was announced by president putin himself in moscow at a meeting with his defence minister and foreign minister as well. there were a couple of meetings between turkey, russia and iran but as far as russia meeting rebel fighters in and carrer to reach this deal. the opposition are on one side and they need a deal to end fighting and the killing of civilians. russia doesn't want to be consumed yet for another year in a war in syria and they have also announced they may reduce their presence there. the key question is how the government is going to abide by this deal. the government already

said it doesn't include fighting islamic state and an affiliate of al-qaeda and everyone affiliated with them. for the government in the past, it with anyone fighting the government as terrorists so it could bea government as terrorists so it could be a legitimate target for them. also, iran is not happy with the deal. we will have to wait and see how the government is going to respond and how iran is going to respond. turkey and russia say they will be guarantors of this. does that mean they will be placing it and if anybody steps out of line that they will deal with it? well, both sides are going to monitor the situation. first of all the russians said they will guarantee the government will abide by it. we already know russia has military presence on the ground and there were many deals on the ground and russia would have to be present

to guarantee these deals. we will see if turkey will send troops to monitor or control the rebels about this. there are still details to be discussed in the documents president putin has mentioned but we'll have to wait and see after midnight if this truce is going to go into a fa ct. this truce is going to go into a fact. this is hugely significant significant for vladimir putin. there is a lot at stake for this to work. yes, indeed. as i mentioned earlierfor him to come work. yes, indeed. as i mentioned earlier for him to come out and work. yes, indeed. as i mentioned earlierfor him to come out and make the announcement is a big issue and he is putting all his weight on this to be fermented. there is also lots of exceptions because we are talking about exclusion in fighting islamic state. what i heard from the meeting that took place with rebel fighters is that they have already agreed on a plan with a map of military targets for islamic state to reduce

targeting civilians. it seems there are targeting civilians. it seems there a re lots of targeting civilians. it seems there are lots of details discussing and already a political plan. there is a meeting taking place next month in kaza khsta n meeting taking place next month in kazakhstan between the government and opposition before the geneva peace talks in february so they seem to be pushing forward, especially before president—elect donald trump gets into office so that president putin get any credit for any way out of this war. thank you very much. australian police say they have smashed a drugs ring. 500 kilograms of cocaine were found in new south wales and 600 kilograms were seized in tahiti. from sydney, we have a report. the police say this was the biggest haul of cocaine in australia's history. the

investigation into an alleged smuggling ring began almost three yea rs smuggling ring began almost three years ago. detectives believed the criminal syndicate was using a trawler based at a fish market in syd ney to trawler based at a fish market in sydney to meet a so—called mothership from chile to import vast quantities of drugs. more than a tonne of cocaine has been recovered from a boat north of sydney and on islands in the south pacific. we have seized 32 kilograms of heroin in fiji we allege was destined for australia. 600 kilograms of cocaine in tahiti which allege was destined for australia and that culminated on christmas night in the seizure of 500 kilograms of cocaine. 15 men have been arrested and charged with serious trafficking offences. among them are a businessman and a former australian rugby league player. investigators allege that although the gang was resilient and determined, it has been completely

dismantled. this is an international organised crime syndicate trying to ta ke organised crime syndicate trying to take advantage of our coastline in the hope we won't be in the area they are in but as is evidenced today, through cooperation and hard work of police officers, law enforcement officers, syndicates such as this will be taken down. authorities they had this huge consignment reached the streets of australia, the result for the community would have been devastating. scientists may have discovered new insights into brain diseases such as alzheimer's and parkinson's through studying the work of famous painters. they've found artists who went on to develop the conditions started using different brush—strokes several years before becoming ill an insight which may help understand what's happening in the brain of people who develop the diseases. 0ur health correspondent dominic hughes has more. who's this painting by? vermeer. can you remember what the painting is called? the girl with the pearl earring. it is one of my

favourites that you did. living with dementia, joyce cope still enjoys painting. but today, her work is very different from the highly detailed pictures she used to produce before the disease took hold. there was these really good copies of the masters, and very detailed. she's not as detailed now. she can remember things from years ago, but generally if you ask what she had for breakfast this morning, she can't remember. but can art, and more specifically the way artists work, tell us something about the development of dementia and other degenerative brain diseases? much of the research into dementia has obviously been very medical. but now, a new approach combines both maths and art, and offers an intriguing insight into what might be going on in the brains of those artists who develop dementia, long before any symptoms become obvious. there is some fractal content in this, which is what we call very

low—level fractal dementia... fractal analysis is a complex, mathematical method of looking at recurring patterns. the recurring patterns of our brainwaves and heart beats are fractal. the same applies to the individual brushstrokes of artists, it is a bit like their handwriting. now, an analysis of more than 2,000 works by 17 artists has revealed tiny changes in those patterns. artists who went on to develop dementia or parkinson's disease, the fractal patterns started to change, in an unusual way. so what we find is, up to 20 years before they actually had a diagnosis of a neurological disorder, the fractal content within their paintings had started to decrease. so anything that helps us understand more about how the brain operates is a useful way to inform future directions for research. the artist willem de kooning was diagnosed with alzheimer's disease after his death in 1997. the brushstroke patterns seen

in his earlier work were different when compared to later paintings. but in the work of picasso, who died free of any known neurological disease, the patterns remain constant throughout his life, regardless of what he was painting. so is it easier to use oils than it is to use watercolours? yes, yes. this won't help diagnosed dementia, or similar diseases, but it does give a valuable insight into changes that are taking place in the brain, years before the illness appears, and so could help answer questions about these devastating conditions. time for a look at the weather. a cold start to the day for most of us in england and wales but not as much fog as we were expecting. much of it was down in the valleys, for insta nce of it was down in the valleys, for instance in shropshire. thank you to

simon for sending us this picture. now we've got some fog around the vale of york. it will clear and we will have sunshine across much of england and a strip of thin cloud will help to break up the fog in the west midlands. most of us will see some sunshine but quite cloudy across south—west england and wales and for most of us with the sunshine out, temperatures should get up to six or seven celsius. into northern ireland we have got some decent brea ks ireland we have got some decent breaks in the cloud and sunshine with a south—westerly breeze so it is relatively mild, up to 8 degrees in belfast. the cloud breaking in scotland. quite breezy for the northwest with spots of rain threatening the western isles. 0vernight tonight, clear skies for england and wales to start off with soa england and wales to start off with so a frost is likely and we may well see some cloud developing through the night, especially across western parts of england and wales, helping

to raise the temperature is towards the end of the night. for scotland it will be a cloudy night and a cloudy start to friday. across the far north of scotland we have a weather front and it will bring persistent rain to the northern ireland ‘s dash to the northern isles. friday, we are looking at a lot of dry weather. prone to break along high ground so spells of sunshine around. 0ur weather front drops. war of scotland will be getting wet weather along with parts of northern ireland. england and wales a little bit dry and a little milder dot heading through new year's eve milder dot heading through new yea r‘s eve night milder dot heading through new year's eve night as we run up to the big midnight celebrations, we see this band of rain trickling southwards. relatively mild to the southwards. relatively mild to the south of it but across the north for hogmanay in scotland it will be turning colder and for new year's day, it will be cold enough for some

snow, particularly in the hills of scotland. hello. this is bbc news with simon mccoy. the headlines at 1:30pm... vladimir putin has announced a ceasefire between the syrian regime and the armed opposition. the russian president said that both sides had signed documents to start fresh peace talks. translation: the first document between the syrian government and armed opposition on cessation of fire on the territory of the syrian arab republic. the second document isa arab republic. the second document is a set of measures on control over the ceasefire regime. singin‘ in the rain star debbie reynolds has died aged 84 after suffering a stroke — just a day after the death of her daughter carrie fisher. the head of the royal college of gps has warned that patients could be waiting more than a month to see a doctor this winter. nhs england says it's boosting funding for the sector.