this is bbc news. i'm martine croxhall. the headlines at 8.00pm: record numbers of patients in england spent longer than the target waiting time in a&e in december — leaked figures suggest january could be even worse. a report into safety failures which forced 17 edinburgh schools to close criticises the council for a lack of scrutiny over construction work. the government denies abandoning the vulnerable after it stops a scheme allowing unaccompanied children into the uk. a new law designed to help protect people renting homes from rogue landlords is failing tenants, claim a group of mps. also in the next hour: donald trump's pick for attorney general is sworn in, despite objections from democrats over allegations of racism. meanwhile there's more controversy over comments made by trump's nominee for the supreme court. and the story of the australian man trapped for hours, and how yoga helped save his life. good evening and

welcome to bbc news. record numbers of patients waited for more than four hours in accident and emergency departments in england in december — that's according to officialfigures. only 86% met the nhs target of being seen in four hours or less. and figures leaked to the bbc suggest it was even worse injanuary — just 82% — the worst performing month for a&e departments in the past 13 years. the bma says the prime minister can no longer bury her head in the sand about the increasing pressure on the nhs. the government says the vast majority of patients are seen and treated quickly. this report from our health editor hugh pym. scenes like this on bbc news this week have highlighted the immense strain being felt right across the nhs.

here at royal blackburn hospital, rated as good by inspectors, some patients waited up to 13 hours in a&e. some had to sit on the floor. the latest official figures have confirmed it was the worst for waits since modern records began. today at hillingdon hospital in west london, things were a bit calmer, but managers confirmed they've been stretched to the limits. it's been fairly relentless in terms of november, december through january. i'm confident that the safety of our patients is being maintained at a high quality. but it's really not a great patient experience for many of our patients who use our services, and that's what the staff tell me as well. in december in england, 86.2% of patients were treated or assessed in a&e within four hours, the lowest since records began in 200a. that was below scotland, where 92.6% of patients were dealt with within that time.

in wales, the figure was 81%, and the percentage in northern ireland wasjust under 70%, or below the 95% benchmark. in england, the number of patients stuck on trolleys or chairs more than four hours before a bed could be found, was nearly 61,800, up 47% over the year. it has been a steep climb this year, but the thing that has changed the most has been not the 2% or 3% increase in demand, but 40% increase in the delays in moving patients, helping them get back to their homes and back into the community. many hospitals like this one are running at 95% of capacity, that means they're nearly full. for more emergency cases coming in, the difficulties discharging some patients back into the community, some of those needing surgery are having to wait longer. even cancer patients like martin are affected by delays. until this year, that has been very rare. as hospitals prioritise cancer treatment, even during the busiest weeks of winter.

his operation was cancelled minutes before it was due to take place. he's now had the surgery, but he says it was a distressing experience. i was very anxious to go through all of that again. i don't wish it on anyone. it's a horrible feeling. your mind and that is going overtime. it really is, it's just very draining. december‘s a&e performance figures in england were poor but nhs documents leaked to the bbc suggest they were even worse injanuary. it's clear hospital staff working at full stretch. winter is far from over, and the intense pressure seems unlikely to ease in a hurry. an independent report has concluded unsafe construction at schools in edinburgh was the fault of the council and the building contractor. it says it was just luck that no one was killed when a wall at one primary school collapsed just over a year ago.

it was one of 17 schools which were then closed after safety concerns. over 8000 pupils were affected. stephen godden reports. spread across an entire city, 17 schools closed for months, because the buildings weren't safe. it began last january with a storm. nine tonnes of masonry blown to the ground at 0xgangs primary, a question of timing and luck that no one was killed. i eat breakfast... back to school, the bad memory is fading for the mackle family, but they're still wary. it's a lot quieter in the playground than it used to be. you have faith that people who are building public buildings are doing it to an acceptable standard. it does make you question, i guess. you know, when i'm asked the question, is this building safe. explaining why thousands of pupils

were disrupted for months has been the job of an independent enquiry. its conclusions — safety failings weren't the result of how the buildings were financed, but instead, poor quality construction. crucial materials were poorly—fitted or missing, and the problems were much wider than one rogue bricklayer. it was also a failure of inspection and oversight. when this school was being built, one of the architects raised concerns with the contractor about the way the walls were being put together. he told the enquiry those concerns were ignored, and they were powerless to do anything about it. the fact that there were different contractors, different subcontractors, and the same faults turned up in the schools and in other schools in scotland, where we found five walls collapse in the last four years. it says that this is something which isn't just here in edinburgh, or in schools. inspections of all types of public building are underway

in scotland's capital. the question posed, should others be doing the same? steven goddon, bbc news, edinburgh. president trump's nominee for the supreme court has described the president's attacks on the judiciary as "demoralising" and "disheartening". neil gorsuch‘s comments were made to a democratic senator and later confirmed by his office. during the day one of president trump's most controversial cabinet nominees, jeff sessions, has been sworn in as attorney general. more than 30 years ago mr sessions was denied a position as a federaljudge following accusations of racism, 0ur correspondent richard lister sent this report. i, jeff sessions, do solemnly swear. after an angry confirmation process dominated by allegations of racism, jeff sessions was finally sworn in today. he was the first senator to endorse mrtrump‘s campaign, supports his major policies, and will now run his justice department. these dangerous times require a determined attorney general, which is whatjeff is.

jeff understands the job of attorney general is to serve and protect the people of the united states, and that is exactly what he will do, and do better than anybody else can. civil liberties groups reacted with outrage when president trump nominated senator sessions, who's taken a tough line against immigration and the rights of minorities. 30 years ago the senate refused to confirm him as a judge, after he was accused of using racist language to a black colleague. he denied that, but admitted describing landmark legislation ensuring african—americans could vote as "intrusive". 30 years ago the senate refused to confirm him as a judge, after he was accused of using racist language to a black colleague.

he denied that, but admitted describing landmark legislation ensuring african—americans could vote as "intrusive". he's since said it was necessary, and he supports it. in considering him for attorney general, democrats raised these issues, but also insisted he was too close to the president to be able to give him independent advice. after the confirmation vote, he reached out to them. i appreciate the full debate that we've had. i want to thank those who, after it all, found sufficient confidence in me to cast their vote, to confirm me as the next attorney general of the united states of america. but democrats aren't convinced. in a blistering twitter attack, senator elizabeth warren said: another of president trump's nominees made some outspoken comments of his own. judge neil gorsuch, the president's pick for the supreme court, was apparently unhappy with mr trump's criticism of the judge who suspended his travel ban, expressing his displeasure to a democratic senator. he certainly expressed to me that he is disheartened

by the demoralising, abhorrent comments made by president trump about the judiciary. that may winjudge gorsuch some democratic support, as they prepare for his confirmation process. but that too will be a tough battle, as democrats do all they can to obstruct mr trump's agenda. richard lister, bbc news, washington. well, we can now speak to niall sta nage, who's a white house columnist at the hill, the american politicaljournalism newspaper and website. hejoins us from our washington studio. thank you very much forjoining us here on bbc news, niall, and how unusual is it for a potential supreme court nominee orjudge to make these comments about the president? it is an extraordinary state of affairs. to have someone

turn around just a couple of days after being nominated to the supreme court and implicitly criticised the president who nominated him, it is unheard of, but gorsuch was put in a very uncomfortable position by president trump, because president trump hard, as you noted in your report, been outspoken on the immigration case. what do you think of the george's determination to stand up for the independence of the judiciary? what do you think that will do to his chances —— the judge's determination. some democrats and some moderate republicans who might otherwise waver, it will probably help him with those. in that sense it was a good political and sore and comment from judge gorsuch, but it will probably hardly endeared him to president trump who nominated him.

what do you think we should read into the appointment by president trump ofjeff sessions, a very controversial figure for some trump ofjeff sessions, a very controversialfigure for some in america. clearly the trump administration is setting a conservative course and jeff sessions is very much part of that, conservative on a whole range of issues from immigration to some things that were noted in your report. i think he is controversial because of his record on matters of race in particular, going back decades in alabama, and so he will be someone who attracts and has already attracted a lot of liberal criticism, but the trump white house frankly does not care too much about the liberals, and they want to press their case in as conservative as fashion as possible. of course we all know how prolific president trump is on twitter. what is your understanding of any and these people around him might have of his use of it? there is a degree of

unease, and i think there are people in donald trump's circle who believe his use of twitter can be counter—productive, can take away from their preferred news agenda of any given day, but he has used that particular medium pretty effectively. he sees it as a way to hit back at people who have hit out at him and to communicate with voters in a very unfiltered way. so ido voters in a very unfiltered way. so i do not think there is any chance of him giving it up, even as it does cause a degree of unease. what evidence is there of how seriously people take the things he says on twitter. some people who voted for him have actually been surprised he has gone through with some of his pledges, saying they thought he was just playing to the media? yes, i think people have thought that about donald trump a lot but they have often held to that belief in the face of the available evidence, and if we circle back to the point from a moment ago, attacking a judge as a

so—called judge, that clearly seems a serious and genuine attack upon the legitimacy of the judiciary, so i think that even though donald trump tweets in a rather outlandish fashion sometimes, the language he uses fashion sometimes, the language he uses or the tony lee users should not distract from the fact he is serious most of the time —— or the tone that he uses. wendy holden, from the hill, thank you forjoining us. —— niall stanage, from the hill. despite president trump's enthusiastic participation, shares in the social networking site twitter have fallen more than 10%, as the company reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public. the president's daily tweets did little to boost users or ad income, as the company reported a loss of a $167 millions in the final three months of 2016 — which is close to double the amount they lost in the same

period a year earlier. four men convicted of sexually abusing young teenage girls in rochdale are facing deportation to pakistan. the men, who were part of a child grooming ring in the town, were found guilty in 2012. an immigration tribunal upheld the government's decision to strip them of their british citizenship. but the four men can still appeal against the decision. the government has insisted it's not abandoning vulnerable refugees, despite a decision to wind up a scheme allowing unaccompanied minors into the uk. 350 young people — mostly from syria — have been offered sanctuary in the uk under the project. the home secretary amber rudd said the programme risked encouraging people traffickers, and that it would be closed next month. here's our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford. stranded at a hostel in athens, abdul — not his real name — is an afghan refugee, 17 years old. without any other family, he wants to come to britain and was being helped by the charity safe passage. but now the government has said that the scheme to help child refugees in europe, which has taken 200 so far, will only take 150 more. i'm stuch here, so it is really hard for me to achieve my aims,

to achieve my goals. because here there isn't a perfect school or perfect college for the refugees. archive footage: 200 boys and girls wave a greeting to england, land of the free... it was the kindertransport of the 1930s, that saved thousands ofjewish children from the nazis, that inspired the government last year to take in more of today's child refugees from europe. well, i am a refugee and i came to england at the age of six. among those saved in the 30s was lord dubs, who led the push to get the law amended. today he told me the government had broken its promises. when there is something that calls for humanitarian action, and when, as i believe, the majority of british people support that humanitarian action, i think the government have behaved very shamefully by saying, no, we don't want any more of this. i think it's disappointing and it's shabby and i don't think they should have done it. those who want to help more child refugees,

including the archbishop of canterbury, said today that the government was going back on commitments it made last year. but ministers say to that that there's no point in inviting thousands of children here, if the local councils who will have to look after them can't cope. these are children who need looking after over a period. when we accept them here, it is notjob done — it is making sure that we work with local authorities, that we have the right safeguarding in place, and that is why we engage with the local authorities. but the home secretary was warned that if the refugee children are not helped now, they will try to make their own way to britain. they are heading back to calais, back to dunkirk, back to the mud, back to the danger, back into the arms of the people—trafficke rs and the smugglers, the exploitation, the abuse, the prostitution rings, and back into the modern slavery that this parliament and this government has pledged to end.

there are still tens of thousands of refugee children in limbo in europe, but the government prefers its other schemes for settling vulnerable refugees from the camps nearest to syria. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 this evening in the papers. our guests joining me tonight are benedict paviot from france 2a, and the daily telegraph's economics commentator liam halligan. the headlines on bbc news: leaked figures suggest record numbers of patients were kept waiting for longer than four hours in a&e in england injanuary — the worst month in 13 years. a report into safety failures which forced 17 edinburgh schools to close blames a lack of scrutiny of building work. calls for the government to reverse its decision to end a scheme to bring unaccompanied child refugees to the uk. sports now, and for a full round—up,

let's go to the bbc sport centre with mike. hello. thank you very much. mps in the house of commons have passed a motion of no confidence in the football association. there have been calls for english football's governing body, to reform itself for decades, but now they could face legislation, if they aren't seen to modernise from within. 0ur sports editor is dan roan. the government has already, remember, threaten the fa with tens of thousands of pounds of crucial funding cuts if it does not start to reform itself. ithink funding cuts if it does not start to reform itself. i think today was an important staging post on what in football terms has always been seen as the nuclear option, passing a bill in parliament to actually force a hand and tell it, know was the time to reform. critics are unhappy with what they say is a lack of diversity and independence on the fa's two main decision—making bodies, the council can effectively its parliament, and the board. they are also concerned about the

perceived dominance of the professional game, in particular the premier league, and they want changes. as you say, this comes after yea rs of changes. as you say, this comes after years of restriction with the fa and a perceived lack of progress. that was dan roan. the scottish fa are appealing against the fine, they received for wearing poppies on their shirts, against england last november. both teams, wore the symbol, to commemorate, remembrance day, during the england vs scotland world cup qualifier, on november 11th. the sfa say they have received the written reasons, from fifa, and have told world football's governing body they intend to appeal against the £15,000 fine imposed. the first match of the rugby league

super league season is underway, with leeds rhinos trying to put their problems of last season behind them at st helens. it is one of the great rivalries of recent seasons and 15 minutes in, both sides are feeling their way to the new season and have yet to score. in rugby union, there is potentially good news for the welsh team, head of their six nations match against england on saturday. george north has been named in that tea m george north has been named in that team for the match in cardiff. they are both hoping that he and fly—half dan biggar will be fully fit. two experienced players, the experienced players first, george in the wide channels, and dan, you know, through his experience and leadership. we are giving them every opportunity to be fit. england have also made two changes.

harlequins flankerjack clifford, will make, just his second start, replacing tom wood who drops to the bench. clifford will be part of an inexperienced back row which will have a total ofjust 20 caps to its name. jack nowell also comes in. forjonny may on the wing. great britain play turkey in the fed cup tomorrow, looking to make it three wins out of three, in their round robin group. early today they beat latvia, to make it 2 out of 2 following victory over portugal and they are yet to drop a rubber. new team captain anne keothavong is confident of a clean sweep in her first competition... i really have belief in my players andi i really have belief in my players and i feel that everyone i really have belief in my players and ifeel that everyone has been playing well, the team spirit is high and we're looking forward to

tomorrow. i team gb will be favourites against turkey tomorrow. that is all the sport for now. i will have more free in the next hour. ——i will have more free in the next hour. —— i am sure that team gb will be favourites. studio: mike, thank you very much. jeremy corbyn has made four appointments to the labour front bench, following yesterday's rebellion during the commons brexit vote. our political correspondent, eleanor garnier has the latest. whatjeremy corbyn has done this evening is put four people into new positions or shovel them around and this is in fact his fourth reshuffle since he has been in thejob, which isi since he has been in thejob, which is i have to say pretty unprecedented —— shuffle them around. this came about because we had the vote yesterday in the house of commons on triggering article 50, the formal divorce talks for leaving the formal divorce talks for leaving the eu, whether that should be triggered, and unusually for labour they wanted to support the government's bill, so they enforce a three line whip, the strongest possible instruction that it should vote for the bill. there were three shadow cabinet members who resigned. they said they could not vote for

that bill, they could not go against their constituents' wishes and did not think it was the right thing to do, so they have resigned and what we have news of this evening is how those positions will be refilled. rebecca long bailey has been moved to the shadow business position, though role previously held by clive lewis. suejoins as though role previously held by clive lewis. sue joins as shadow environment secretary after the resignation of rachael maskell, and the shadow welsh secretary is now christina rees, replacing jo stevens, and finally petered out fools the chief secretary position. —— finally peter dowd. names some of us —— finally peter dowd. names some of us may not have heard of or know much about, but i think it keeps jeremy corbyn‘s ratio of 50% women in his shadow cabinet. the interesting thing is what will

happen to those other top team members. so the front bench but not the most senior positions are rebelled and defied jeremy corbyn‘s order, who did not resign. will they face disciplinary action, or will they be allowed to stay on in their positions? it looks like this evening they will not be sacked, but we are told there will be no more announcements this evening. quite interesting, because the usual form is if you decide the whip, you have to go, you have to resign, but it does not look like that discipline will be enforced. that was eleanor garnierfrom will be enforced. that was eleanor garnier from westminster. private tenants in england are being unfairly evicted from their homes, and now some leading mps are also claiming a new law to protect them isn't working. the law was introduced to stop so called revenge evictions — people being thrown out because they'd complained about problems with their properties. in response to a freedom of information request to hundreds of councils in england, 55% said they had stopped no such evictions. 26% recorded no figures on the problem. only 19% had taken any action.

radio 1's newsbeat reporter dan whitworth has more. damp, mould, faulty electrics and broken windows and boilers that don't get fixed when it's cold. they are all classed as category1 hazards — in other words, they are so bad, they pose a risk to health. they are things that leeds city council housing inspectors that are all too familiar with. this is private rented accommodation? people paying to rents, making complaints and nothing happening and they could be under revenge eviction is? that is the reason why they are not coming forward to make a complaint. he is talking about people like 24—year—old liz james. lights not working? the whole wall is full of damp. this whole area is damp. i wouldn't touch it. it is the whole wall. when i came here, i didn't

want to move in, because i saw the state of the front door. i don't really want to keep on complaining, because he might say to me, out you go. what would happen to you if you did get evicted? what are you worried about? being on the street. you are worried about being on the street? yes, i have been on the streets and it is not nice. i am going to start crying... sorry. i've been there — it is horrible. sorry. it's all right. so that is obviously why you don't want to complain too much, because that is the other option for you? government figures suggest around 1 million private rented properties in england, don't meet its own decent homes standard. this is the kitchen. what is that? mps who help hold the government to account, same rogue landlords are avoiding their responsibilities. is this law working? clearly not.

i can't believe there are that number of authorities where no one has been the subject to a revenge eviction. the government says revenge evictions are rare, and thanks to its new law, councils have all the powers they need to stop them. there's more pressure on the football association tonight — this time from mps. they've passed a motion of no confidence in its leadership. of pounds in funding, if it fails to reform the government has warned the fa could lose millions of pounds in funding, if it fails to reform and become more representative of modern society. we believe now that legislation. mag that it we believe now that legislation. mag thatitis we believe now that legislation. mag that it is the only way in which this can be delivered. that was the recommendation from the last chairman of the fa to the select committee, that the fa cannot reform itself. turkeys will not work for christmas. there has to be pressure through legislation to achieve it. the fa's current model does not in my opinion and clearly that of other

colleagues stand up to scrutiny. reform is therefore required, but i repeat the governing body has every opportunity to bring that about themselves, and whilst i believe a vote of no—confidence in the fa todayis vote of no—confidence in the fa today is six weeks prematurely and re st of today is six weeks prematurely and rest of those governing body should know the clock is ticking and it will lead not tojust know the clock is ticking and it will lead not to just the withdrawal of public money but... well, with me now me is tony evans, sports commentator for the london evening standard. how seriously will the fa take this criticism from mps? i think it has to ta ke criticism from mps? i think it has to take it seriously because clearly there is pressure on the governing body to reform themselves, but i think it is an institution incapable of changing. why? by the way it is setup away the committee ‘s work, by this elaborate system which has grown over the years. the chief

executive and chairman said they will address these things and they have not been able to. why not? the thing they said about the turkeys and christmas. i think it has to be swept away right from the bottom and rebuilt. i think this has been beyond the capability of lots of chief executives coming in and i think it is almost a meltdown situation where you have to say, right, we have to take really drastic action. the problem with the government being involved is that there are fifa rules that prevent governments interfering with the way the fas run. they have taken a dim view of that in other parts of the world ? view of that in other parts of the world? yes, it has been suspended in africa, and so on, so i cannot see that helping. i have some sympathy with the fa with a vote of no confidence because you look at the parliament today and you see 17 mps, and only a handful turned up. there are serious problems there. i think

the most serious one is the fa does not quite know what it is trying to do. when did this start to become a problem? it goes back a long time. in 1966 there were people asking what was wrong with the game and what was wrong with the game and what could be done to reform it. 50 yea rs what could be done to reform it. 50 years and they are still doing it. it isa years and they are still doing it. it is a perennial problem. are there any other models in other parts of the world that might work your? personally, i think the fa should rethink what it stands for. what it should stand for is protecting the laws of the game, as a flag bearer forfans, and it should look not to cheat the money, the way the premier league does. you cannot compete with the premier league's big battalions when it comes to money but it should be the moral authority of the game andi be the moral authority of the game and i think there is a role for parliament. what they should do is be looking at football, at the state is, and perhaps set up something like... heritage sort of programme,

the clubs are protected, so that when people buy them they cannot change the names, they cannot move them away from places, they cannot leveraged them, and lord it onto them and, you know, so there are certain things you cannot do. —— unload debts. and i think they have to take a year zero approach. what about the fans, those who play clu b football what about the fans, those who play club football and kids' football on a saturday, what do they want from the fa? i think what they need from the fa? i think what they need from the fa? i think what they need from the fa is protection and they need encouragement from the fa. i think most encouragement from the fa. i think m ost fa ns encouragement from the fa. i think most fans in particular do not really care and that is one of the problems with this whole issue. tony, good to speak to you. tony evans from the london evening standard. cold and grey possibly the best

description of the weather forecast. today's satellite picture tells the story quite nicely. but it stays cold and temperatures will really struggle, not only through the night, but by daytime. overnight, the risk of further showers, rain close to the coast but head inland and we could see sleet and snow. a cold night as well. temperatures below freezing in places and we start off on a rather grey note. that easterly breeze continue to dry in cloud of the north sea. the bird that used you are, the risk of showers. the best in the sunshine likely to be northern ireland and scotla nd likely to be northern ireland and scotland but temperatures will still struggle, 2—5d. one change as we head into the weekend? think again. a light dusting of snow in eastern areas, cloudy and cold.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: figures leaked to the bbc suggest record numbers of patients spent longer than the target waiting time in a&e in england in january, making it the worst performing month since records began. every patient stacked on a trolly in the corridor not getting to the ward is for us a system failure. a report into safety failures that forced 17 edinburgh schools to close has criticsed the council and building partnership over a lack of proper scrutiny of the construction work. church leaders, mps and peers have condemned the government's decision to end a scheme to let unaccompanied migrant children in to the uk. donald trump's pick for attorney general, jeff sessions, is sworn in despite objections from democrats over allegations of racism. this week, the bbc is looking

at the state of the health service across the uk and the challenges facing our hospitals and doctors. but what is the cause of the current strain on the system? our health correspondent, smitha mundasad, has been studying the numbers. in the last week, we've been trying to get under the skin of the nhs and we've been into some hospitals that say they are experiencing immense pressures. the question lots of people are asking now is why is the nhs facing these problems? what's behind all this? could it be down to something like cash? well, this graph shows that funding for the nhs has pretty much gone up year—on—year. last year, it was around £140 billion. that's ten times more than it was 60 years ago. that isn't the whole picture, though. from about 2010 in england, though funding has gone up, it's gone up more slowly than it generally has in previous years. and take scotland and wales, for example.

in the last few years, they faced funding freezes. it's not all about money, though. some people argue that the nhs has simply become a victim of its own success. people are living longer, about 13 years longer than when the nhs was created in 19118. and while that's a good thing, the older people get, the more they tend to get complex health problems, things like dementia, that need long—term care, and that costs money. look at this. it costs about six times more on average to treat an 85—year—old in the nhs than a 30—year—old. of course, new treatments and new inventions are coming in all the time but they don't come cheap, either. that is just some of the problems. but what about the solutions? could we go back to money? could we put in more money from the public purse? well, look at this. the uk tends to spend less than the eu average as a proportion of its gdp on health care.

could we boost this through tax, for example? we put this to the uk public in a poll, and this is what they said. about 40% said that they would support an increase in income tax to help nhs funding and about 53% said they would support an increase in national insurance. but there were a lot of people who said they wouldn't support things like upfront charges or health insurance schemes. perhaps it's time to move away from money and think of other things. think of shaking up the system. successive governments have tried to put more care into the community but in england, for example, the number of district nurses has gone down and it's not always easy to get a gp appointment. there is a wider issue at stake. more older people mean more people

need care at home or care in the community in care homes. funding for care, social care, is different across the uk but each country faces similar problems when it comes to rising demand. let's take a closer look at what's happening in england. estimates suggest that, over the last four years, the number of people getting financial help for social care has fallen by about a quarter, and that means many are getting no help at all or are having to rely on family and friends and that, in turn, means some are ending up back in hospital. officials say they are putting more money into health and social care and trying tojoin them up but some say this just isn't enough. there are some people that say it's time to go back full circle, tear up the nhs and start again from scratch, but that is a huge task, and it's one very few people seem to want to take on. we can now speak to paediatric registrar dr latifa patel, who joins us from our lancashire

studio. tell us what the pressures are like in yourarea yearon tell us what the pressures are like in your area year on year. we have seen this coming. winter is not an unexpected time of year. we note that more viral type illnesses come with the winter, the elderly population, babies, children, those with chronic illnesses get unwell every winter but what is different about this here is we are not coping. we have seen cuts over the last 12 months. we have seen cuts in nursing staff, shortages of doctors, we have seen cuts in beds, whole units shutting down and this has had a knock—on effect coupled with the fa ct we a knock—on effect coupled with the fact we are now in winter but this

nhs crisis. we have spoken to some a nalysts nhs crisis. we have spoken to some analysts who say that there is a real terms increase in spending still happening in the nhs but you're not seeing any signs of that though? we hear headlines about funding going up but you only have to sit in a&e to see the true pressures . to sit in a&e to see the true pressures. we need to know real—time figures and facts, how many doctors and nurses do we have on the front line? the number of district nurses have gone down. we need to know what is happening with social care. there has been a lot in the media about bed blocking, an awful term. these patients have nowhere else safe to go and we need to know what is happening on the other side, how much funding is going into social ca re much funding is going into social care to make sure patients can be discharged on time and safely. that is the argument not more pertinent to older patients, not paediatric

way you are dealing with people at the other end of the light, the young people? it is notjust the elderly population. we must make sure that all patients, paediatrics included, have somewhere safe to go when they are released or fit the discharge. it is many times not where they came from. what about the expectation that we have on the nhs? has got to hide? has become a victim of its own success and people just expect the drugs and treatment when they need them ? expect the drugs and treatment when they need them? we cannot say that. advances in medicine are something to be celebrated, the fact we are able to tackle chronic diseases we could not tackle 20 years ago is something we should celebrate. thank you very much forjoining us. more protests are taking place in romania

as protesters demand the cabinet resigns. the justice minister as protesters demand the cabinet resigns. thejustice minister has stepped down. he was the architect of the government bill which planned to reduce penalties for politicians facing corruption charges. the proposal sparked mass protests in bucharest ‘s, attracting hundreds of thousands of people. after the bitterest of hearings, president trump's choice for us attorney general has finally been sworn in at the white house. the senate vote saw democrats attack jeff sessions for his record on racism and civil rights but the president said mr sessions would herald a new era ofjustice. eight of president trump's cabinet are now in post. meanwhile, the president took to twitter today to vent his anger after reports that his nominee for the supreme court, judge neil gorsuch, had criticised him for his attacks on thejudiciary. the president claimed that the source of the story, senator richard blumenthal, had misrepresented the comments and his own war record. tell us what happened at the

confirmation hearing withjeff sessions. it was very contentious. it was dragged out over several weeks and democrats objected tojeff sessions, pointing towards past jokes on the ku klux klan and saying his anti—immigration record would not be well suited for thejustice department, but republicans had 52 votes in the senate, they only needed 50 to confirm him, and they got 53 out of the 52 with jeff sessions abstaining. one democrat came back over and voted with the republicans. he came through, you will sworn in as attorney general today. what can we expect from him? he will look very carefully at immigration. the justice department has a lot of power over us

immigration law and how to enforce it, who to deport, border security, s0 it, who to deport, border security, so we it, who to deport, border security, so we will see a focus on that and also on voting rights. donald trump in the past has talked about voting fraud and made that very bold accusations about voting fraud so he will trustjeff sessions to look into this and if they find any evidence or even if they don't, they will propose solutions for cracking down on that. then we move on to the issue of thejudiciary down on that. then we move on to the issue of the judiciary and the supreme court nominee, can you unravel for us what he actually said and how it got out into the public? we don't know exactly what he said. it has come in second hand. we are hearing from senator blumenthal who said thejudge expressed hearing from senator blumenthal who said the judge expressed a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the way donald trump has criticised a particular judge way donald trump has criticised a particularjudge who put his immigration order on hold and that dissatisfaction was confirmed by

other republicans who were in the room, but this morning we saw, donald trump attacking senator blumenthal directly, talking about a pa rt blumenthal directly, talking about a part in his past when he made up his war record and be in an annexe at a rate dipped and saying that the remarks were taken out of context. we are seeing a lot of focus now on thejudge and we are seeing a lot of focus now on the judge and there will be calls from democrats for him to finally come forward and say exactly what he thinks about donald trump and his immigration order and what he said aboutjudges immigration order and what he said about judges and i'd immigration order and what he said aboutjudges and i'd say yes, i said that to a senator or no, i did not. that will affect the way democrats view him in his independence. judges are meant to be independent so how much damage if any with these