OLYMPIC athletes and visitors should be encouraged to avoid drinking Coca Cola - one of the games' major sponsors - and offered tap water instead, according to an MP.

Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat spokesman on the Olympics and MP for Carshalton and Wallington, said offering free tap water would reduce pollution and encourage healthy lifestyles.

Coca Cola has sponsored the Olympics since 1928 and is a "worldwide partner" of London's 2012 games, alongside firms such as McDonalds, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.

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DOCTORS in some London boroughs are failing to meet Government targets for offering patients extended opening hours, the Department of Health has revealed.

Ministers have asked health trusts to ensure at least half of GP surgeries are open at weekends and evenings by the end of the year - and the target was met three months in many parts of the capital.

But some health trusts in London are lagging behind, and seven of them still have no GP surgeries offering extended opening.

Figures from the Department of Health show that 51 per cent of the 8,275 practices in England have extended opening hours.

However, none of Newham's 63 GP surgeries have so far begun offering services at weekends or evenings.

In Bromley, just four out of 51 surgeries offer extended opening, and in Harrow the figure is three out of 38.

In Southwark, nine out of 41 surgeries offer extended opening.

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REFORMS to GP contracts have made little difference to patients and cost taxpayers £1.8 billion, an inquiry has warned.

The changes were introduce in 2004 in a bid to stop GPs leaving the profession and encourage more newly qualified doctors to become general practitioners.

But the Commons Public Accounts Committee, including Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Burstow, warned that it had resulted in doctors earning more - for less work.

Mr Burstow (Lib Dem) said: "We found that in general practices are not being opened longer or at more convenient times for patients."

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THE NHS spends more than £2 billion every year treating London patients for the effects of being obese or overweight.

A report published by the NHS itself, as part of a campaign to encourage people to eat properly and take more exercise, has revealed the staggering cost of obesity to the health service.

Health trusts and local councils have been urged to encourage parents to take better care of their children's health, to cut the number of people treated for heart disease or cancer caused by being overweight.

But the same study also revealed shocking levels of ignorance about the importance of good diet and healthy lifestyles, with six out of ten parents apparently unaware that being overweight can lead to heart problems.

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HOSPITALS and health trusts across the capital have been ordered to take "immediate action" to improve their finances, after auditors found they were failing to offer value for money.

The Audit Commission, the official financial watchdog for public services, criticised eight Greater London trusts for poor use of resources.

They were warned that they must improve, after failing to meet minimum standards for three years in a row.

And the Audit Commission warned that failure to manage budgets effectively "can put services for patients at risk."

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PATIENTS should be given taxpayers' money to opt out of the NHS and buy private healthcare instead, according to a London academic.

Nick Bosanquet, Professor of Health Policy at Imperial College London, set out plans to give every person a voucher worth up to £2,000 a year, to spend on treatment.

They could use it to buy treatment from NHS health trusts - or to go private.

The money would come from general taxation and replace existing NHS funding, potentially cutting resources for the national health system dramatically if enough patients chose to go elsewhere.

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HOSPITALS and health trusts in the capital are expected to fail to spend £320 million this year, the Department of Health has revealed.

The underspend is predicted after it emerged London hospitals cancelled more than 1,200 operations last year because of a lack of beds.

Government figures show they also underspent by £284 million last year, but even more cash will go unused this year.

NHS officials said the surplus, which is expected to reach £1.75 billion across the country, showed good financial management.

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