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David Cameron promises to create a 'truly seven-day' NHS

David Cameron has sought to neutralise Labour's election strategy with the promise of a "truly seven-day" NHS if the Conservatives are returned to power on May 7.

Addressing activists at the Tory spring conference in Manchester on Saturday, the prime minister told them the General Election was on a "knife-edge".

"This isn't any election. This is a high-stakes, high-risk election," he said, before launching an attack on the leadership credentials of Ed Miliband, who has put the NHS at the heart of the Labour campaign.

"Some might say 'Don't make this personal', but when it comes to who's prime minister, the personal is national," Mr Cameron said.

"The guy who forgot to mention the deficit could be the one in charge of our whole economy. The man who is too weak to stand up to the trade unions at home could be the one facing down our enemies abroad."

Mr Cameron called for the creation of a genuinely seven-day NHS, with hospitals and GPs offering full care at weekends.

The move would see hospitals across England offering consultant-level services at the weekend. The changes would start with emergency and urgent care services - and supporting services, such as diagnostics.

Labour said the prime minister had made a similar proposal before the 2010 election.

Dr Mark Porter, who chairs the British Medical Association council, said the Conservatives had not even committed the funds needed to maintain existing services. "The £2bn extra funding that has been pledged falls far short of what is needed to deliver existing services, let alone fund additional care," he said.

Mr Cameron's NHS pledge follows the publication of leaked documents suggesting that taxing disability benefits and limiting child benefit to the first two children are among the options being drawn up by officials to meet George Osborne's target of cutting £12bn from the welfare bill.

The chancellor has repeatedly refused to say how he would meet the target. But leaked documents show a range of options have been drawn up by officials at the Department for Work and Pensions.

They include taxing disability benefits, restricting the carer's allowance to those eligible for universal credit, and limiting child benefit to the first two children. Those three moves might save £3.5bn a year in the longer term.

Another option included in documents leaked to the BBC would be to replace the industrial injuries compensation scheme by asking companies to provide industrial injury insurance for employees, with a predicted saving of £1bn.

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The Conservatives insisted the ideas were not party policy, and that some of the work had been conducted under the auspices of Sir Jeremy Heywood, head of the civil service, to identify potential welfare savings.

"Officials spend a lot of time generating proposals - many not commissioned by politicians," said one Tory aide to Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. "It's wrong and misleading to suggest that any of this is part of our plan."

The leaked documents also consider a regional cap on the benefits any household could receive, with a London limit of £23,000, but a lower cap in parts of the country with lower housing costs.

This policy was floated by Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, but was opposed by many Labour MPs. It is not Conservative policy.

Meanwhile, David Cameron will call on Saturday for the creation of a genuinely seven-day NHS, with hospitals and GPs offering full care at weekends.

The move would see hospitals across England offering consultant-level services at the weekend. The changes would start with emergency and urgent care services - and supporting services, such as diagnostics.

Labour said the prime minister had made a similar proposal before the 2010 election.

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