The Tories would scrap plans to build a new children's hospital in Brighton, Health Secretary Alan Milburn has claimed.

He said the £28 million relocation of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children to the Royal Sussex County Hospital site would be one of 41 projects to fall victim to the Conservative's programme of tax cuts.

The claim has been denied by shadow health secretary Liam Fox who said the Tories would match Labour's NHS commitments.

The children's hospital is being moved because the facilities at the Royal Alexandra are "inappropriate" for modern health care.

The Government has said the hospital lacks the necessary equipment, including scanners.

Work on procuring the new hospital is due to start in 2002/03.

But Mr Milburn said the Tories' commitment to £20 billion of spending reductions would leave the scheme, announced in February, on the scrapheap.

He said: "The axe would inevitably fall fastest and hardest on the new staff and new services that Labour's increased NHS investment would fund.

"Where Labour will sign contracts for the biggest hospital programme in the NHS, the Tories would have to cancel 41 new hospitals in places such as Brighton."

However, Dr Fox denied this would be the case if his party won power on June 7.

He said: "Nobody believes Alan Milburn's claims that the Conservatives would cut back on health expenditure.

"We have said time and again that we will match in full Labour's health spending plans."

Yesterday Dr Peter Hawker, head of the British Medical Association consultants' group, said the NHS was being forced to provide a standard of care he would not wish on his own family.

GPs threatened to quit the NHS if they could not agree a new deal with the Government by the end of March 2002 to cut red-tape and boost staff numbers.

June 2, 2001