Christine Hancock the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said.

"On the eve of the last general election Tony Blair told the electorate it had 24 hours to save the NHS. The Government probably has a little longer than 24 hours, but not much.

"Targets and figures are all well and good but if we see a repeat of this winter's sorry tale of an NHS on its knees, people will lose faith in the NHS."

Last year many people died of flu due to shortages of doctors, hospital beds and nursing staff as well as NO CASH. Labour lied - as usual.