London - The New Labour government and the National Health Service both came under severe attack yesterday after a 74-year-old woman's cancer became inoperable for want of an intensive care bed, and a Labour peer castigated government health policy.
Mrs Mavis Skeet and her family learned yesterday that the tumour in her oesophagus was now inoperable after potentially life-saving surgery had been put off four times due to the shortage of beds caused by the flu outbreak.
Meanwhile, Lord Winston, a Labour peer appointed by the prime minister, and one of Britain's most prominent doctors, told the BBC that Labour's reorganisation of the NHS had been "disastrous", and said that the government's strategy on health care had been "devious".