Leaders clash over NHS
Tory leader Michael Howard clashed bitterly with the Prime Minister over NHS spending today, insisting extra cash was not "reaching the frontline"
In stormy Commons question time exchanges, Mr Howard raised the case of a pensioner who had had her operation cancelled seven times, to attack the Government's record.
He said this was not an isolated case and accused Mr Blair of living in a "different universe" if he thought otherwise.
But Mr Blair accused the Opposition leader of trying to use an individual case to undermine the basic principles of the health service.
He said that if the circumstances were as described by Mr Howard, it was "completely unacceptable," but it was a "calumny" to suggest this was the rule.
"The rule is people are treated excellently in our NHS," Mr Blair insisted to roars of support from his own backbenchers.
The row erupted when Mr Howard raised the case of Margaret Dixon, who, he said, was a 69-year-old pensioner living just outside Warrington.
"She's in constant pain and desperately needs an operation," he said. "Because she has a weak heart she's been told her chance of surviving that operation is less than 50/50.
"On seven separate occasions she has been given a date for the operation, been prepared for it and said goodbye to her family in case she didn't survive.
"On each of these seven occasions her operation has been cancelled.
"She's praised the doctors and the nurses. But can you explain how after eight years of your Government, all the money they've spent on the NHS and all the promises they've made - this can happen in Britain today?"
Mr Blair replied: "Obviously I have to look into the details of the particular case. It is true that literally seven or eight minutes before Prime Minister's questions you faxed me through some of the letters in respect of this case.
"But obviously I've not had the opportunity to look into it. If it is as described, it is completely unacceptable. But I don't know the details of it and, frankly at the moment, probably neither do you.
"What I think is quite wrong, is to take a case, which if it is true is of course unacceptable, and try and make what I believe is an exception into a rule for the health service.
"The fact is the vast majority of people in our NHS - and remember there is a million of them treated every 36 hours - are treated extremely well."
