Muammar Al Khadafi

Liberal Democrat Health Minister Paul Burstow is embroiled in something of a controversy after he called his own governments cost cutting plans for the NHS "reckless" and said that local doctors and councillors views were "being ignored" by NHS bosses.

The posting relates to plans to merge St Heliers hospital, in Burstows Sutton and Cheam constituency, with St Georges hospital as part of measures taken by Epsom and St Helier trust in order to save £18.7million, a measure of course needed thanks to ConDems budget cuts.

Local campaigners have accused Burstow of turning tail in order to save himself political embarrassment, and asked him to explain himself at a rally against potential job losses. Burstow didn't attend.

The post was swiftly removed from Mr Burstows site, and the Mirror quotes an aide as saying that it was "unapproved" and "taken down as soon as it was spotted"

However, thanks to the wonders of Googles web cache, here's the full text of the deleted post which is causing such controversy :

Local MP Paul Burstow and senior Lib Dem councillors have called for bosses at St. Helier to pause, listen and reflect over plans for a reckless merger with St. George's Hospital in Tooting.

Having secured £219 million worth of investment for a major re-build to save St Helier Hospital, Paul Burstow is concerned that "local services we have fought so hard to keep will be put at risk by this proposed merger with St. George's."

"I have spoken to numerous hospital doctors, GPs and local councillors, who feel as if their views are being ignored by the NHS bosses. It's been difficult to find anyone who supports these plans.

"St. George's has long running financial difficulties, and, only recently, saw the departure of their Chief Executive. It is quite clear to me that they are not currently in a position to merge with St. Helier.

"Any merger that could result in the loss of services, which local residents rely on, will not be tolerated. It is essential that we show local NHS bosses this," added Mr Burstow.

"We need to ensure that any merger is for the right reasons, and not an attempt at a quick fix," said local Lib Dem Cllr Stephen Fenwick. "The amount of support we've already had from residents has been great, and will help us up the pressure on NHS bosses to pay attention to those people who rely on our local services.

It was originally posted at http://paulburstow.org.uk/en/article/2011/503570/paul-burstow-demands-merger-end  but now, as you'll see, the article is removed.

Which comes first Mr Burstow - standing up for a cause which you seem to be passionate about, fighting against these cuts imposed by ConDem which will see "local services we have fought so hard to keep" being "put at risk" or political expediency and toeing the ConDem line?

Only you can answer that one, but the rest of us can see what the Liberal Democrat Health Minister really thinks about the end result of ConDems austerity insanity, an end result that is seeing the services upon which we all rely suffer.