:00:00. > :00:00.Those are the headlines and this is BBC News. At ten o'clock Fiona Bruce
:00:00. > :00:00.will be here with a full round-up of the news. First, it is time for
:00:00. > :00:07.Newswatch. Hello and welcome to Newswatch
:00:08. > :00:11.with me Samira Ahmed. Vital insight or just
:00:12. > :00:14.demoralising coverage? The BBC's special NHS reporting
:00:15. > :00:19.is in the spotlight. Is it ever justified
:00:20. > :00:22.to show an image of a child who has just been killed,
:00:23. > :00:25.as Newsnight did in a report Reports about the National Health
:00:26. > :00:34.Service have been especially frequent on television news
:00:35. > :00:36.bulletins over the last few weeks of winter,
:00:37. > :00:41.but this week more so than ever. The BBC was running a week
:00:42. > :00:44.of special programmes and reports, which they branded as Health Check,
:00:45. > :00:52.about the state of the NHS, including Monday's Panorama
:00:53. > :01:03.and lengthy items on the 6pm and 10pm bulletins on Monday,
:01:04. > :01:05.Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Seven years ago this council spent
:01:06. > :01:08.about a third of its budget providing care and support to people
:01:09. > :01:11.who are older and disabled. But now the cost of adult
:01:12. > :01:17.social care is heading towards half of its budget,
:01:18. > :01:19.with demand still increasing and that is at the heart
:01:20. > :01:22.of the problems they are wrestling The BBC was given unrestricted
:01:23. > :01:27.access to witness the We have had patients
:01:28. > :01:35.here for 6-9 hours and we cannot We were in the corridor
:01:36. > :01:53.for five hours. It isn't what you expect
:01:54. > :01:55.from a country like ours. Hospitals like this one are running
:01:56. > :01:58.at 95% capacity which means they are nearly full so with more
:01:59. > :02:00.emergency cases coming in and difficulty discharging some
:02:01. > :02:03.patients back into the community some of those needing surgery
:02:04. > :02:07.are having to wait longer. Our health editor and special
:02:08. > :02:09.correspondent and social affairs No question about the
:02:10. > :02:24.comprehensive nature viewers told us by telephone
:02:25. > :02:30.and webcam that they were concerned
:02:31. > :02:33.about the effect of that coverage and that the BBC had
:02:34. > :02:35.an axe to grind. Every night this week we have seen
:02:36. > :02:39.the BBC 6pm and 10pm news leading with the story on the current state
:02:40. > :02:41.of the NHS. We all know there are many
:02:42. > :02:44.problems in the NHS, and there are many reasons for this
:02:45. > :02:46.including bed blocking, immigration, lifestyles,
:02:47. > :02:49.health tourism, waste, bad procurement, trivial A visits
:02:50. > :02:54.and so on. And yet BBC news would rather have
:02:55. > :02:59.us believe the problems are all due to so-called Tory cuts
:03:00. > :03:02.and that throwing more money at the problem
:03:03. > :03:05.will solve everything. Please, BBC, get your house
:03:06. > :03:08.in order and start reporting This campaign should be
:03:09. > :03:17.reserved for a Panorama I understand there are serious
:03:18. > :03:22.problems in the NHS and I understand that things have got worse by some
:03:23. > :03:25.measures, however, BBC News seems We have better health
:03:26. > :03:31.care than most. Please try and help us to feel
:03:32. > :03:34.grateful for what we have and try to help us make things
:03:35. > :03:36.better rather than constantly I am not newsworthy because I am one
:03:37. > :03:41.of the thousands of people who have received treatment from the NHS over
:03:42. > :03:44.the last few months who have I only have praise for
:03:45. > :03:48.the dedicated, professional staff who have carried out treatment
:03:49. > :03:51.on their behalf. This week we have been bombarded
:03:52. > :03:53.by the news on all channels telling us what is wrong
:03:54. > :03:56.with our National Health Service. What you have as the BBC
:03:57. > :04:10.is responsibility in terms of making sure we do not demoralise the staff
:04:11. > :04:15.any more than they already are. I asked a nurse if she was impacted
:04:16. > :04:18.by the adverse publicity seen She looked at me as if it
:04:19. > :04:22.was a silly question. The BBC has spent the last week
:04:23. > :04:25.with intensive wall-to-wall coverage of bad news about the NHS and some
:04:26. > :04:29.important things are needed to be However, the effect
:04:30. > :04:34.of that is to produce a downwards Come on BBC, it is not that we don't
:04:35. > :04:41.need to know about these bad things and they do need addressing,
:04:42. > :04:47.but I think that the benefit of the NHS and our appreciation
:04:48. > :04:56.of it we should hear some Well, the health editor
:04:57. > :05:10.for BBC News has been on the news for much of this
:05:11. > :05:20.week and is here now. Viewers, as you can see
:05:21. > :05:23.from looking at those clips, have felt there's been so much
:05:24. > :05:25.coverage focusing on the negative things, waiting times
:05:26. > :05:27.and cancellations, they wonder whether the BBC is hyping
:05:28. > :05:29.up a sense of crisis? There have been several strong
:05:30. > :05:32.newsline is which we would want to cover as part of our BBC
:05:33. > :05:34.News output. We did some research on waiting
:05:35. > :05:37.times, patients who were waiting longer than 18 weeks in England
:05:38. > :05:39.to get surgery. That is the target, they should
:05:40. > :05:41.be seen for a routine We discovered from our data that
:05:42. > :05:47.nine out of ten hospitals are running at levels that
:05:48. > :05:50.are deemed to be above what is Institute for Fiscal Studies has
:05:51. > :05:54.said that health spending in England has gone up but per person it
:05:55. > :05:57.will start bawling. On Thursday, very bleak figures
:05:58. > :06:03.from NHS England on how the performance in December
:06:04. > :06:07.was the worst since records began and looked like it was going to get
:06:08. > :06:10.worse in January after documents I think it is our job to report
:06:11. > :06:14.on facts and figures In terms of staff morale,
:06:15. > :06:18.I take on board what people were saying there about staff
:06:19. > :06:20.feeling downtrodden because of this. Equally we have had contact,
:06:21. > :06:23.e-mails and calls, from staff who said it is really good
:06:24. > :06:25.that the BBC is focusing on what is really going on,
:06:26. > :06:28.from senior consultants to junior This is what the BBC should be
:06:29. > :06:42.doing and it has not done It is finding that balance. One
:06:43. > :06:48.viewer said that they felt the coverage felt like a downward spiral
:06:49. > :06:51.of despondency and that was so overwhelming that perhaps it needs
:06:52. > :06:56.to be balanced with some coverage that shows the more positive side.
:06:57. > :07:02.There has been quite a lot of positive side. There was a big
:07:03. > :07:07.debate on health involving patients and staff and other health experts,
:07:08. > :07:12.including some patient testimony on the positives they found with the
:07:13. > :07:19.NHS. We have had coverage throughout the week on different aspects of how
:07:20. > :07:23.GPs are coming to terms with the different challenges. The news
:07:24. > :07:30.challenge has reports on innovative schemes to link up care homes with
:07:31. > :07:35.GP practices. There using technology. We tried to emphasise
:07:36. > :07:40.the positives. We had a Yeovil Hospital scheme that aims to look
:07:41. > :07:44.after older patients in their autumn this book facility away from
:07:45. > :07:49.accident and emergency. We tried hard to talk about the positives
:07:50. > :07:53.possible solutions, but equally we have two state the facts which are
:07:54. > :07:57.straightforward. It is a difficult balance and we are holding an
:07:58. > :08:01.important institution to account, and it should be about providing the
:08:02. > :08:05.best possible patient care and the government should make sure it is
:08:06. > :08:09.funded adequately and it is making efficient use of taxpayers' money.
:08:10. > :08:14.Some complaints have been but it is felt the BBC is politically
:08:15. > :08:20.campaigning and saying it is about more funding for the NHS. There is
:08:21. > :08:26.the opinion that the NHS should have more funding, but health spending in
:08:27. > :08:31.the UK as a whole as a share of national income is below France and
:08:32. > :08:36.Germany, it is falling, the ISS during the week have made clear that
:08:37. > :08:42.spending will fall in a way it has never done before in terms of
:08:43. > :08:45.spending per head of population. We have taken those arguments and put
:08:46. > :08:51.them forward. We have been accused in the past of not addressing lack
:08:52. > :08:56.of funding. We are not being political, we're stating facts.
:08:57. > :08:59.Equally, we have been very clear that there are some who feel the NHS
:09:00. > :09:03.could name more efficient use of their resources and we have
:09:04. > :09:07.reflected that argument, it is not just about money it is about better
:09:08. > :09:11.ways of joining up care, better ways of spending money. It is an
:09:12. > :09:16.important debate and think it is only right to address the issue of
:09:17. > :09:21.funding. Thank you. When is it justified to broadcast close-up
:09:22. > :09:24.images of someone who has recently died? The question was raised after
:09:25. > :09:30.the Newsnight report on Wednesday from a village in Yemen where US
:09:31. > :09:35.special forces attacked and Al-Qaeda compound. Several civilians were
:09:36. > :10:02.killed, including a boy who was showing. This viewer said that :
:10:03. > :10:30.we put that point to BBC News and they told us:
:10:31. > :10:35.Finally, we have almost managed to get through an additional Newswatch
:10:36. > :10:41.without mentioning Donald Trump, but not quite. A programme has been
:10:42. > :10:48.running about his first hundred days in office. Even some of his fans are
:10:49. > :11:05.not happy with this. One viewer wrote:
:11:06. > :11:12.Thank you for all your comments this week. If you want to share your
:11:13. > :11:17.opinions on BBC News or appeared on the programme you can call us or
:11:18. > :11:24.e-mail us using the details on screen. You can find this on Twitter
:11:25. > :11:32.and do look at our website for previous discussions. That is all
:11:33. > :11:34.from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News
:11:35. > :11:35.coverage again next week.