26/12/2015 BBC Weekend News

This is BBC News, with me, Nicholas Owen, it is coming up to 20 past

ten. Here are some of the day's news.

The public is being asked to use A units only if absolutely necessary

Winter is always a busy time for hospitals,

Research by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has suggested

as Christmas approached the NHS was missing its four-hour A

In the week ending 11th December, 86.5% of patients across the UK

Now, to help it cope during the festive period,

NHS bosses in England are asking patients to think twice before

they come to hospital during the next week or so.

NHS England and the college only want patients to turn up

Instead, they've been urging people to stock up on painkillers and cough

And where appropriate, patients are being advised to use

alternatives such as the 111 phone line and pharmacies.

This is because they're worried that the way that Christmas

and New Year falls, it could lead to a surge in demand

Patient numbers traditionally peak on the first working day

It's not known exactly why this happens, although the suspicion

is that with many community health services closed,

people struggle on before turning up at A once the holiday is over.

NHS England said it was fully expecting a surge from Tuesday

A vast programme of rail replacement is under way -

no trains were running yesterday and very few are operating today.

Some lines will even be closed right through until January 4th.

Network Rail insists it's learned from its mistakes last year,

and this time the work will be finished on time.

Ben Ando reports now from Purley Station in Surrey.

Out with the old - and in with the new.

This just one of nearly 100 new track sections being moved

into place at Purley Station on the main line

Rail closures are becoming as much a part of Christmas

That's because with passenger numbers traditionally far lower,

Our railway is the fastest growing in Europe.

It is also the most intensively used in Europe,

But it's also because we are using it so much,

we have less time than ever before to maintain it.

Much of this track dates from the '70s and has to go.

But this is just one of 500 projects under way nationwide this Christmas,

Each of these track sections weighs around 15 tonnes,

and there are 98 of them to move into position.

They will do it using one of the biggest rail

It is the fastest way to work, and the engineers here are proud

Last year, similar works at King's Cross and Paddington

overran and caused chaos as contingency plans failed to cope.

This time round, Network Rail said it has learned its lesson.

Everyone knows they must keep to schedule, and on every site,

engineers are working round the clock to get the jobs done.

Just to bring you up to date news on the flooding in the north of

England, very serious floods in many places, particularly in Yorkshire

and in Cumbria, but from York, search and rescue teams and the army

are now involved in the operations there, but the assistant director of

communities and culture for York city council says this, we are in

uncharted territory, because the river Foss pumping station has

failed, and the barrier has had to be opened. We already know that

several hundred homes, people have been advised to take their property

upstairs, York is obviously very vulnerable, a serious situation, and

we will bring you more on that later on this evening. We will be having a

full weather forecast as well. Plans to evacuate Islamic State militants

from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus have reportedly been

halted. The Syrian Observatory

for Human Rights says the delay is for logistical reasons in order

to secure the road to Raqqa. The UN-brokered deal

agreed safe passage In return, the UN will be able

to deliver much-needed aid to the thousands of people

still living in the camp. More than a hundred homes have been

destroyed by Christmas Day bushfires in Australia along a stretch

of coastline popular Firefighters are continuing

to tackle the blazes south of Melbourne

in the state of Victoria. Fast-moving flames and thick smoke

have brought panic and fear to communities celebrating

Christmas along Australia's More than 50 houses have been

destroyed in Wye River Firefighters have struggled

to control the blazes. Boots on the ground were supported

by water-bombing aircraft, The outbreak began last weekend,

but intensified after being fanned by strong winds as

temperatures soared. Many residents and holiday-makers

were forced to flee as Christmas festivities were abandoned

when the scale of the threat They were all prepared,

putting their barbecues on, they were cooking away,

and all of a sudden they could see They thought it was still

four hours away, And then all of a sudden

it was an hour away, then half an hour away,

so they just dropped everything, stopped cooking and hopped

in their car and headed here. Conditions were so severe that

authorities were advised to evacuate A cool change has subdued

some of the fires, and some heavy rain

has brought welcome relief. Many bushfires are started

by lightning strikes, while others are sparked

accidentally Ominously, some of the blazes

are the work of arsonists. We have been reporting the very

serious situation with flooding in the North of England, let's get the

latest details on the weather forecast with Alex Deakin.

The weather continues to cause problems, the rain continues to fall

across parts of northern England and North Wales. Also, we have amber

warnings still in force, that means be prepared for further problems.

The rain will be easing through the night, and there will be something a

bit drier into the start of the week. However, for the time being,

rain is still falling across much of the North of the country. This band

of rain is spreading further southwards and tends to weaken as we

go through the night. Much of Lancashire, North Wales become dry

by three o'clock in the morning, and then most of Yorkshire is dry by

dawn. It will be wet across Lincolnshire, south-west England,

but not as intense as it has been further north through the day today.

The rain easing in eastern Scotland, where it has been very soggy, fog in

Northern Ireland, mild across East Anglia and the south-east. Rain

creeping into the east of the country for the morning period, this

band of rain will start to push back further north. A bright start for

North Wales and northern England, but clouding creasing, some rain,

albeit much lighter, pushing back later in the day. Most of Scotland

will be dry and sunny tomorrow, on the fresh side compared to recent

days. Still very mild the South. That becomes more widespread in the

macro on Monday, a fine day for most, double digits up and down the

board. Tuesday and Wednesday, we are concerned about this deepening area

of low pressure. It looks like steering away from the UK, but the

myriad isobars potentially bringing some very windy weather, but also,

on the slow-moving weather front on Wednesday, more heavy rain. The we

cared, largely dry on Monday, but potentially stormy conditions around

the middle part of the week. -- the weak air head. With more wet weather

to come through the middle of the week and with severe flood warnings

still in force at the moment, I thought I would remind you of the

Floodline number. The warnings are always on the website.