more than 4.5 million people were waiting to begin hospital treatment in england at the end january, that s the highest number since records began in 2007. the royal college of surgeons has called the situation to turn things around. here s our health editor, hugh pym. hospital wards devoted to covid. the surge in numbers over the last two months led to widespread cancellations of less urgent types of care, and there s still a backlog from last year s first covid peak. today s figures highlight again the scale of the problem. charmaine has severe arthritis, and last year was hoping to have a knee replacement. she was told in november she d have to wait another 12 months. she s currently out of work and the task of finding a newjob keeps getting harder. i hate not being able to work. how do i say to a new employer, thanks for thejob, but maybe in a couple of months, i might need three months off for a knee replacement. patient waits for non urgent care have increased around t
the nhs test and trace system, which is likely to cost the taxpayer £37 billion failed to prevent lockdowns and there is no evidence that cut the number of coronavirus infections. those other findings in the house of commons public accounts committee, publishing a highly critical report of the scheme. it said the cost was staggering and the taxpayers were being treated like a cash machine. hugh pym reports. a testing site, today, now part of everyday life, but it has cost a lot of money to get where we are and a highly critical report by mps has fuelled a new debate on what test and trace has achieved. it was raised at prime minister s questions. the government is throwing a staggering £37 billion at a test and trace system that we know has made barely any difference. the prime minister defended its performance. it is thanks to nhs test and trace that we re able to send kids back to school and begin cautiously and irreversibly to reopen our economy and restart our lives. t
much further than the paris accord, to limit global warming. now on bbc news, the travel show. this week, a look back at some of our favourite european adventures. we test drive the continent s fastest and highest ride. watch some masterpiece maintenance in the netherlands. it looks incredible. yeah. 0h, here we go again. and travel back in time over 2000 years as wejoin the crew of a replica galley in greece. hello, and welcome to the travel show, coming to you from a very chilly st pancras station. now, normally, this place would be bustling with people going back and forth from the uk to the continent on the eurostar. pre pandemic, it was carrying around 11 million passengers every year between britain and mainland europe, but that number has dropped by 95% since last march and, today, i can only see two outbound trains on the board. unfortunately, i m not catching a train today as we are still under lockdown, but that isn t going to stop us from looking back at some o
The night watch by rembrandt is right now being restored under the watchful eye of well anyone who wishes to see the painstaking restoration process the painting is a 400 years old and it was lost restored after a knife attack on it in 1975 that restoration has started to discolor a bit the rice museum in amsterdam has decided it is such an important painting that the public should be allowed to see it as its current renovation precedes. Operation night watch cutting kerner is allowed to get right up close to the rembrandt painting the chemist is in charge of a team of 20 researchers restoring The Night Watch is the chance of a lifetime. Many other one hind of pigments did he use 400 years ago with and how has the condition changed im certain that it will gain a lot of information from these investigations and that will be able to dive deeply
into the analysis of this art work the painting is famous for several things its size measuring 16 square metres and weighing 170 kilograms the w