Andy Burnham dismisses Tory promise to reopen hospital wards as not credible

Labour's health secretary, Andy Burnham, today attacked the credibility of claims by his Conservative shadow that the Tories would reopen hospital wards and accident and emergency departments that had been shut down. In the first skirmish of the general election campaign over health policy, Burnham, speaking at the King's Fund thinktank this morning, pointed towards his "own back yard" in the north-west. He said in that region, there had been a number of closures that had received broad support "where difficult changes were made", but the Tory shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, had been touring the constituencies with a message that "he would overrule them on day one [as health secretary]. We have actually done the difficult stuff ... we have accepted the need for change." Burnham said "very difficult changes" in Hartlepool and Sedgefield in maternity services had been made and the town of Burnley had seen its hospital lose its accident and emergency department, but nearby Blackburn had expanded its hospital provision. "My shadow [health spokesman] has been wandering to all these places and promising to reverse these changes. I do not believe it is credible." A spokesman for Lansley's office said: "If Labour want to fight us on Labour closing down hospitals and the Tories opening them then that's fine," adding that hospital reorganisations were a "huge story" in places like London, where opposition to "health service reorganisation" has snowballed into mass public rallies. "In north-west London, two or three hospitals out of five hospitals are being closed down ... this is all from a flawed analysis. In Bury the reason they are cutting the maternity services is because the trust says there is a falling birth rate, but the birth rate is rising. In other places they are shutting down accident and emergency departments which are being used by 100,000 people a year. Where will they go?" The row underlines how important the national health service remains to voters. Dan Wellings of pollsters Ipsos Mori told the same conference that the NHS was "second only to the economy" in voter concerns. About a third of voters said the economy was "very important" in deciding who they vote for compared to 26% for health. He said: "It may not seem like a big issue but voters do care about it." The latest polling shows Labour, he said, had a nine-point lead over the Tories on who would better manage the health service, but this compares poorly with the 44-point lead the party had in 1997. The poll ratings and Conservative populism over the NHS reflect David Cameron's belief that Labour had been successful in tarring the Tories as a party prepared to destroy the NHS, and this had contributed in three devastating election defeats. However, since 2008 the Tory leader has ruled out an overhaul of the health service and publicly challenged former Labour health minister Lord Darzi over his comments that the "days of the district general hospital are over". Remarkably the Conservative now go into this election promising to spend more on the NHS than any of their rivals, by "protecting health spending in real terms". The Labour party have pledged to protect 95% of the NHS budget and the Lib Dems have made no promises to ringfence health spending.