Tories blast NHS 'death warrant'

The Tories today attacked Tony Blair's claim that the NHS would be "dramatically improved" or he would happily face the consequences.

Opposition health spokesman Liam Fox said: "Never can a Prime Minister have so willingly signed his own death warrant." Mr Blair made the declaration in a newspaper interview yesterday following a week of damaging rows over the treatment of patients at the Whittington Hospital - first highlighted in the Evening Standard.

The hospital was forced to apologise to the family of Rose Addis, 94, and the family of another patient, about the treatment received in the north London hospital's casualty department.

Mr Blair said in the interview that the NHS would be "dramatically improved" by the extra money being invested, adding: "I am so confident of that, let me say this: if the NHS is not basically fixed by the next election, then I am quite happy to suffer the consequences. I am quite willing to be held to account by the voters if we fail."

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