Dobson: "everything is on the agenda"

Frank Dobson defends spending review

Dobson Attacks "Scaremongering"

He has called the claims "scaremongering" and said, "the ideas floated by journalists are simply scare stories and the Government will have no truck with them".

He insisted that Labour's manifesto commitment that health care would be available to all -- free of charge -- remained.

The row comes folowing an address by Mr Dobson to a conference of NHS Managers in Cardiff on Thursday, where he told journalists that, "everything is on the agenda for the review, we've got to look at every aspect of health care."

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Health Secretary insisted that the review will go ahead, but the Government would stick to its election manifesto commitments and stay true to the Labour Party's "reputation for fairness".

"I tried to be truthful and I said we are ruling nothing out. We are looking to every aspect so we can get the health service finances on an even keel, so we can get through the pressures of this coming winter without legions of people lying on trolleys in hospital accident and emergency departments. We are going to look at charges but it may be that some charges will actually be reduced or removed." Mr Dobson said he had not realised, until taking office, that the financial situation in the NHS was so bad.

The spending review comes as the NHS faces a budget deficit of £300 million pounds.The options available to the Health Secretary which might help bridge the hole in the budget include prescription charges for some pensioners, charges for GP home visits as well as charging for food in hospitals.

Dorrell:"Great betrayal"

Stephen Dorrell Reacts to the health service review

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, he said "They should have told the British people this would be their policy before the election, and not two months afterwards," Mr Dorrell admitted that he had raised prescription charges, but said "What we did not do was to extend the range of prescription charges to cover pensioners or people who suffer from some sort of chronic disease."

The review has also angered the Liberal Democrats. Their health spokesman, Simon Hughes, said he did not beileve that the Labour Party were not fully aware of the financial position of the health service during the election. He urged the Government to admit it was wrong and change its policy.

Lib Dem spokesman Simon Hughes - we said this would happen

Hospitals: Financial crisis

"We have a financial crisis, the Government has inherited a deficit situation, the public have to face up to a difficult question. It seems they want restructuring but are reluctant to pay for it through taxation. Ideally I would like to see more tax funding for the NHS, but maybe that choice is not on offer from the public." he said