A REVIEW of NHS priorities in Burnley is being called for by prospective Tory parliamentary candidate Rob Frost.

He said he was demanding an immediate review in the light of a report that Burnley had the ninth worst record in the country for deaths in hospital and was in the bottom 25 regarding the number of doctors per 100 beds.

Mr Frost said the people of Burnley deserved to know why, despite government promises, they faced a greater risk of dying in Burnley hospitals than if they were admitted elsewhere.

He added: "It is scandalous that there are just not enough doctors in Burnley to deliver the care that people deserve from a service that we all depend upon sometime in our lives."

He was calling for an immediate review into why priority was not been given to saving the lives of those most in need.

"It seems the main concern is meeting New Labour's political targets of reducing waiting lists at which Burnley gained almost full marks.

"This spin doctoring appears to be costing Burnley lives at the cost of getting Tony Blair another term in office," he claimed.

He said patients may not have been so receptive to the recent annual visit to the hospital by local MP Peter Pike had they known that despite the superb efforts of the staff the failure of his government to provide adequate resources at the front end meant that patients were simply not receiving the treatment they could be if they lived in another part of the country.

The Conservatives, he said, had promised to make clinical need the basis of treatment priority whilst matching Labour's planned investment levels for the NHS over the next few years.