Labour ally 'ditched to avoid scrutiny'

Th Government was today accused by a staunch ally of trying to mislead the public about the NHS.

London Health Emergency (LHE), a pressure group set up in 1983 to oppose health service cuts, supported Labour and was credited with helping successful Labour candidates to campaign on the health issue in the 1997 election which swept Tony Blair party to power.

Now, LHE chairman Geoff Martin says his organisation was betrayed by New Labour once it got into government. "They didn't want us around because they didn't want the scrutiny," he said. The organisation was active in the fight against the closure of the A&E ward at Barnet hospital, a campaign which was judged to have had a devastating impact on the Tories in north London.

"There are a number of Labour MPs in Westminster today who owe their parliamentary seat to that issue," he said.

London Health Emergency had a budget of around £60,000 a year at that time. The Labourcontrolled London Boroughs Grants Unit was the biggest supporter with an annual grant of £13,000. A number of Labour councils provided between £2,000 and £5,000 each. "One by one all those Labour-controlled councils pulled the plug," Mr Martin said. "Then the Grants Unit stopped its grant."

He says he believes a decision was made within Labour's central leadership to close down LHE because while it had been useful in exposing flaws in the NHS under the Conservatives, it had outlived its usefulness.

"We knew too much," he said. "At one point I was even told that if we toned it down a bit we might get some money."

Now LHE survives on a curtailed budget funded by health trade union branches. Mr Martin claimed the organisation had proof that health authorities and trusts are actively colluding with Government to disguise what was happening in the NHS in London.

"They are misleading the public over the extent of the crisis," he said. According to him a shortfall in the care of A&E patients was being masked by putting people into "transit wards".

"They are often just corners of the casualty department," said Mr Martin. "It's just a scam to make the figures look good. The hospitals know it and the Government knows it too."