Blair moves to end A&E battle

Tony Blair is today moving to put a lid on the political row over the Whittington Hospital amid signs that the clash is damaging both Labour and the Tories.

The Prime Minister, in a speech this morning, is expected to come to the defence of workers in the NHS and across the public services. But at the same time he will acknowledge there are serious problems which must be sorted out.

Mr Blair has also signalled that he is ready to accept proposals from the British Medical Association designed to prevent cases like that of Rose Addis becoming a political football in the future. Despite that, the bitter slanging match between the Tories and Labour showed scant sign of dying down.

For the Conservatives, Iain Duncan Smith claimed that patients or their relatives who dared to complain in public now face the whole might of Whitehall's rebuttal machine, with details of their medical treatment laid bare by the Government.

Downing Street said yesterday that where there was criticism, health staff and politicians could and should dissect medical details if the information was already in the public domain.

It was not clear how that squared with Mr Blair?s commitment to accept the BMA code which includes the pledge that politicians will not go into details without patients? consent.