29/06/2014 BBC Weekend News

The British Medical Association has criticised a Government proposal to

name GPs' surgeries in England which have a poor record

The idea is being considered by the Health Secretary,

Jeremy Hunt, who says many people are not being referred

The BMA has called on the Government to provide more

resources to allow doctors to spend more time with patients.

Our correspondent, Nick Beak, reports.

Cancer detection rates in Britain are below the European average. The

Health Secretary thinks shining a light on how well GPs are diagnosing

the disease will improve the picture. A survey for the NHS last

year suggested more than one in four people eventually diagnosed with

cancer had seen their GP at least three times before being sent to a

specialist. One in four cases, that is 80,000 people, were diagnosed by

staff in A after the patients or their GPs had missed the symptoms.

Now the government is considering giving a red flag on an NHS website

to surgeries which are missing too many cases. Those with quick

referral times would be given a green rating. The British Medical

Association said it would be a crude system which could mean cancer

specialists were overwhelmed with patients. It may lead to GPs

referring every patient to hospital. That would clog up clinics, it would

delay patients in genuine need, if that occurred. This isn't the way to

improve care for patients with early cancer. There are wider criticisms

today of the government's overall policy on the NHS from within the

coalition's own ranks. Stephen Dorrell fears with an ageing and

growing population, the NHS could collapse within five years unless it

receives a boost in funding. We will not cut spending on the NHS, we will

increase it. The coalition has ring fence spending on the NHS but now

some Tory and Lib Dem MPs are arguing NHS funding should be

increased above inflation, so that doctors can't cope with the extra

pressure on the system. Nick big is at the Department of

Health, what is the department saying?

The government says it has had to take tough decisions to be able to

ring fence the NHS budget but at the same time it has improved access to

GPs for more than 7.5 million people, and the billions of pounds

it has saved is being reinvested in front line services which has helped

with the increased burden. Recently we have heard from the likes of

Doctor Liam Fox, a former Conservative minister. He is saying

that in the future the NHS budget should not be ring fenced. Labour

says it is wrong and that at a time when the economy is picking up, the

NHS is a department which should receive an above inflation rise in

its funding. Thank you. There are reports

of fierce fighting around the Iraqi city of Tikrit - which has been

captured by Sunni rebels. Government troops have launched

an offensive to re-take the city. There are reports of many casualties

on both sides. Saddam Hussein's old hometown of Tikrit, government

forces mounted a four pronged attack. State media said they

completely overrun the strategic city. But they produced no evidence

to back their claim. A spokesman for the rebels said it was completely

untrue. He said their fighters are still in complete control of Tikrit,

after defeating the government assault. Local sources said the

troops had pulled back well south of the city. This is what the embattled

Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is hoping will turn the tide. Five

Russian jets have arrived, the first of about a dozen he has bought. They

will still need assembling but military officials said they could

be in action in just a couple of days. Nouri al-Maliki is fighting

for his political life, too. Many Iraqi leaders think he is not the

man to pull the country together. William Hague met him last week. He

seems to think so, too, though he can't say so bluntly. There has been

a failure in recent years to bring together Iraqi leaders and people

out of their sectarian divisions. No one has succeeded in doing that in a

rock over the last eight years or so. Clearly -- doing that in Iraq.

They need a government where people have a sense of genuine partnership.

They are facing a lethal threat. It is a threat that is poised to tear

Iraq apart because at that Isis and its Sunni allies get to Baghdad.

Given the recent offences by the government side, is there any sense

at all that they are gaining ground? It is really hard to say overall. I

would say they have put a lot into this offensive in Tikrit, precisely

to give a symbolic sense that they are on the march back and ready to

push the rebels all the way back to where they came from, through the

country's second city which fell without much of a struggle. Since

then the rebels have taken large amounts of territory between that

city and almost to the gates of Baghdad to the North. They have also

taken the most of a province to the West and border crossings there and

so on. You could say that all of the Sunni parts of the country, not all

of them, there is still some fighting going on, have been taken,

and the rebels are slowly nibbling their way towards Baghdad,

especially in places we don't talk about Bury much, including a

province around the north-eastern parts of the country -- very much.

It is close to the Iranian border. The general impression is that the

rebel side is coming in, it has been pushed back here and there but the

government is yet to make a counter offensive which looks like

strategically pushing them back all of the way they came and taking over

the Sunni areas. Many people are asking, what with victory mean? A

lot of Sunni people have thrown in their lot with the rebels because

they have deep-seated grievances and crushing them all will have huge

consequences for this country's future. Thank you.

The Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, has played down suggestions that

Labour's policy review co-ordinator, Jon Cruddas, is frustrated with

In a speech that was secretly recorded, Mr Cruddas said that

innovation and creativity were losing out in favour of small policy

Prince Charles is said to have tried to influenced the last

Labour Government's policies by pushing for more grammar schools

and expressing opinions on other pressing political issues, according

Our political correspondent, Louise Stewart, is here.

What do we know about these conversations? We know that David

Blunkett, former Education Secretary, has opened to a Radio 4

documentary and within that he says he had conversations with Prince

Charles, in which Prince Charles spoke about grammar schools. It is a

controversial issue. David Blunkett would explain it was not holiday to

expand grammar schools and Prince Charles said he did not support that

and thought they should go back to a different time put up it is not just

David Bunker, another two former ministers have said that Prince

Charles spoke to them about issues he was interested in, whether it

was, entry or GM crops. They said he tried to give his personal opinion

-- whether it was complimentary medicine. I think it is

interesting, because we know he sent letters to some of Tony Blair's

former minister 's, we don't know the contents of them, they have not

been published. Critics question whether the future King of England

should be giving his opinion on personal issues, and there is a fine

line between personal opinion and political lobbying. Louise, thank

you. At least ten people have died

after an appartment building that was under construction

in the southern Indian city Operations are still underway

to try and rescue people who The BBC's Yogitha Limaye

reports from Mumbai. Searching through the debris for any

signs of survivors, this is what remains of a 12 story apartment

block that came crashing down on Saturday evening. It was still being

built and those inside Saturday evening. It was still being

some were pulled out Saturday evening. It was still being

This is only the latest in a long list of

for better regulation of construction in the country.

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.

Let's get you up-to-date with the weather for the week ahead. This

weekend has been very mixed, from one extreme to the other. Lots of

downpours and thunderstorms yesterday. A bit better today.

downpours and thunderstorms week ahead will be quite subtle, a

lot of dry weather, lots of sunshine around. As we head towards Wednesday

and Thursday the temperature is