Cash to improve health siphoned off, warns Boris

Cash for improving Londoners' health is being misspent, Boris Johnson has warned.

The Tory mayoral candidate accused managers of "siphoning away" vital funds from the neediest areas.

He called for public health budgets to be protected from bean-counters and demanded a major reform of the mayor's London Health Commission quango.

He also wants a "filth alert" for London's dirtiest hospital and a "tough on grime" award for the cleanest. He attacked the shame of life expectancy gaps across the city and vowed to beef up the Commission's powers.

He said: "It is a scandal that a child born in Haringey is three times more likely to die at birth than a child born in Richmond.

"The Mayor is morally obliged to speak up when there are such gross and shameful inequalities.

"In the most disadvantaged areas, money is being siphoned away from public health to compensate for financial mismanagement elsewhere."

He said bosses in Tower Hamlets spend just £6 per head on public health while Kensington and Chelsea spends over £21.

His comments will provoke scepticism within the NHS because the Commission has no statutory authority or funding.