The Government stood accused by its own MPs of letting down the poor last night after it emerged that ministers had approved £7m cuts to health schemes for deprived areas.
A total of 11 Health Action Zones will see their programming budgets reduced with effect from this month, with some of Britain’s most needy regions hit hardest.The Independent revealed yesterday that Department of Health civil servants had attempted to cover up the fact that one zone in South Yorkshire was facing cuts of £789,000 this year. A leaked DoH memo to ministers warned that neither MPs nor the public should be informed. It stated: “This will not be received as good news and we would not recommend a press notice.”But the full picture of the cutbacks was revealed in a further leak yesterday when it emerged that zones across the country had seen their core budgets slashed. Among the biggest casualties are Tyne and Wear HAZ, which has been cut £1.2m to £3.5m and Manchester, Salford and Trafford by £1m to £2.8m.Other areas hit are: Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, cut from £3.65m to £2.713m; East London, from £3.189m to £2.37m, and Plymouth, from £1.037m to £771,000.

Luton, Sandwell, South Yorkshire, Bradford, Northumbria and North Cumbria have also been hit. The total programme budget for the 11 zones is to fall from £26.1m in 1999-2000 to £19.399m.The 26 zones nationwide will all be denied the chance to carry forward into their 2000-2001 budgets any underspend from the previous year.The Department of Health pointed out that the overall budget for the zones will increase thanks to more cash to deal with specific issues such as anti-smoking schemes. But Labour MPs were furious that core programming budgets that had been planned locally were cut with virtually no notice.Proof that the Government itself accepts the cut in programming cash will be bad news for the zones was given in leaked memos urging no publicity for the moves. Civil servants also prepared a letter to be sent to the action zone leaders, reneging on a commitment to allow them to carry forward underspends into next year’s budget.Michael Clapham, Labour MP for Barnsley West and Penistone, said that he was extremely disappointed that civil servants had tried to mislead MPs “These massive cuts are a bombshell,” he said. “Here we are in an area that has been run down, where there’s social exclusion and people are working hard to fight it and they not only cut the HAZ funding but they don’t bother to tell us why.”Liam Fox, the Shadow Health Secretary, raised the issue of the HAZ cuts in the House of Commons yesterday.”It is a Government whose culture in running our health service is increasingly corrupt, increasingly playing second fiddle to the interests of the Labour Party’s news machine,” he said. “Once upon a time no Labour government would have dared cut funding to the poorest areas in the country.

Not only is this Government willing to do it, but they are willing to use all the bullying and manipulation they can muster.”Overall, the Government’s spending on the action zones in England will rise from £87.917m to £120.904m, thanks to big increases in cash for schemes under “deprivation” and anti-smoking headings.The Department of Health claimed that funding overall had been increased not cut. Once cash allocated to innovation, deprivation and anti-smoking projects is added in, each area will see its total rise and the whole budget for the 11 will increase from £46.98m to £55.797m, or by 18.77 per cent.. The gynaecologist Richard Neale yesterday defended his treatment of a woman who collapsed on her kitchen floor in agony, by saying her American upbringing made her more demanding than a British patient. The gynaecologist Richard Neale yesterday defended his treatment of a woman who collapsed on her kitchen floor in agony, by saying her American upbringing made her more demanding than a British patient.
Mr Neale, who is accused of professional malpractice over his treatment of 13 women in 11 years, said he was “quite confident” he was right not to order further treatment for the woman, known as Mrs B.Giving evidence to the General Medical Council, Mr Neale responded to allegations that he had failed to properly monitor or treat Mrs B, leaving her to suffer years of pain from a condition called endometriosis.Her described the woman, who is British but picked up an American accent after living in New York and has led the campaign to have him struck off, as “more introspective than a British patient”.The tribunal heard that in November 1990 she collapsed while preparing lunch.