MORE than two thirds of the leading doctors who publicly declared their support for Tony Blair in 1997 and urged the public to vote Labour for the sake of the NHS have turned their backs on the party.

An exclusive survey by The Times of the consultants, GPs and academics who campaigned for Labour on the eve of the general election eight years ago reveals widespread disillusionment over the Government’s reforms.

Many of the 59 doctors who signed the letter of support said that they felt badly let down and were exasperated at the direction in which the NHS had been pushed by Labour.

Of the 52 signatories contacted by The Times, just 17 said that they would give the party similar backing now. Twenty- two would not sign the letter again, seven were no longer keen to comment publicly and six said they were undecided. Five were unavailable for comment and two have died.

Just 16 of the doctors were prepared to state openly that they would vote Labour on May 5, while 15 said they would be voting for another party.

The response was in marked contrast to the group’s very public endorsement of Labour in 1997, just two days before Tony Blair swept to power. Many of the doctors, including leaders in cardiology, ortho-paedics, diabetes and emer- gency medicine, said that rather than protect the NHS as promised, Labour had pursued the right-wing policies that they had feared from a Tory administration.

In their letter of 1997, which was published in the national press, the doctors said that Labour would protect the NHS from the Tories’ competitive market system of “snowballing bureaucracy” where “accounting comes before care”.

Only a third of the doctors said that the current Government had met their basic expectations for the NHS. The majority had strong misgivings about recent reforms, including the introduction of foundation hospitals, the increased use of the private sector and the Government’s perceived obsession with targets.

Vincent Marks, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Surrey, said that he and many colleagues felt that Labour’s reforms were “against the most fundamental principles of the NHS”.

Others spoke of feeling deceived by political promises that had come to nothing. Only a minority backed the Government for promoting an NHS agenda that was driving up standards.

“Most of us feel that we have been badly let down,” Professor Marks said. “The dismantling of the NHS has continued apace. The important thing about a national health service is that there isn’t competition between institutions. We are meant to co-operate. You compete only when attempts at collaboration have failed.”

Duncan Dymond, a consultant cardiologist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital who helped to draft the letter, said that though the Government’s record was “not all bad” he was shocked that doctors’ premonitions of NHS damage inflicted by the Tories had come to pass under Labour.

“When Alan Milburn (the former Health Secretary) spoke of patients, patients, patients, he was really saying votes, votes, votes.

“The Government has missed a huge opportunity with the health service. It has not made any substantial, long-standing changes. There has been a marginalisation of the clinician and manipulation of patients to satisfy the bureaucrats.”

Many other signatories expressed similar misgivings, including one former party member who has since resigned his membership. Many said that they were now left wondering how to vote to limit the damage to the health service.

Of the 17 doctors who said they would sign the letter again, most felt that the billions of pounds of extra investment under Labour had been a lifeline to the NHS. Several praised the “target culture” for providing the framework to drive the service forward.

The Labour Party last night defended its record, saying that the improvements that had come with major investment would not have been seen under a Tory administration.

“We are four years into a ten-year plan. We have turned around some things and we have made progress, but progress is not perfection. We have stayed absolutely true to the founding principles of the NHS and we have invested significantly in staff, buildings and equipment.

“We have already seen early benefits, and what we now need to do is build on the early successes and ensure that the whole of the NHS is delivering a world-class service.”

Signatories who were unwilling to comment included the Labour peer Lord Winston, who has faced the wrath of party officials after criticising some Government reforms.

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