Five leading medical professors warn the Government today (20 Feb 2002) that it must consider alternatives to taxation for funding the NHS or risk ever-lengthening waiting lists.  Dr Ian Bogle, chairman of the British Medical Association, backed the call and said that the NHS could not survive as an exclusive state-run system.

In a letter to today's Times the academics[1] led by Karol Sikora, Professor of Cancer Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital, a lapsed Labour Party member, rejected the Prime Minister's claim that the NHS is "turning the corner".

They have pledged their support for Reform, a new organisation dedicated to holding Tony Blair to his promises to deliver better public services.

Reform, which has opened offices in Westminster and formally begins next week, has taken out a full page advertisement in tomorrow's issue of the British Medical Journal calling for a proper debate on the funding of the NHS.

The broadside from the professors is a direct challenge to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who in an interview in The Times signalled higher taxes to pay for more spending on the NHS.

By Andrew Pierce

Read their letter here