LABOUR'S health chief Andy Burnham promised to fight to save the NHS from cuts and privatisation when he stopped off to launch the party's election campaign in the borough.

The Shadow Health Secretary met with union representatives, councillors, activists, health campaigners and hospital staff when he visited Russells Hall Hospital on Monday March 23 to outline Labour's plans to tackle the financial crisis affecting hospital trusts across the country including The Dudley Group where 400 jobs are under threat.

Joined by Dudley North MP Ian Austin, Labour’s Halesowen and Rowley Regis hopeful Stephanie Peacock and the party’s Dudley South candidate Natasha Millward, Mr Burnham MP made promises of an extra 2.5 billion each year to help "get the NHS back on its feet and pay for more nurses, more doctors and more midwives" and said he would repeal the Government's health and social care act if Labour wins the General Election.

He said: "The fight that is now ahead is a fight for the future of the NHS. In the last five years it's gone down and down and down. Not one single person in the constituency gave Cameron and Clegg permission to reorganise the NHS; we've got to make sure Thursday May 7 is Cameron's day of reckoning on the NHS.

“If Cameron gets back in the NHS will be sunk by a toxic mix of cuts and privatisation. We've got to make sure people understand just how serious the situation is.

"This current government is trying to run the NHS on empty and it's not working."

In a candid letter to Ian Austin MP, Dudley Group chief executive Paula Clark highlighted her concerns about the need to make cuts of 3.8 per cent to try and balance the books.

The MP, who raised Ms Clark's fears in Parliament, said: "Everyone knows the pressure the hospital is under.

“Local people are really worried about what will happen if the hospital has to lose one in ten staff. I’m making fighting for the jobs at Russells Hall one of my top priorities. This election is about the NHS in Dudley."

Stephanie Peacock, GMB political officer for Birmingham and West Midlands Region, branded the plan to cut the trust’s spending by up to £18million next year as “excessive efficiency requirements which are placing care at risk”.

She added: “Even hospital bosses have said that in these circumstances NHS providers ‘can no longer guarantee safe and sustainable care’.

“We are calling on the public to show support for the hospital and oppose Tory cuts. The Tories are planning the most draconian cuts in services that we rely on for a civilised way of life.”

Councillor Mike Wood, the Conservative candidate for Dudley South, however, said: "Russells Hall is getting far more money than it was five years ago; that's £63million more than 2009/10 - that's a lot more doctors, nurses and midwives and paramedics in the ambulance service.

"I met with the trust's financial director a few weeks back and he confirmed that as part of the restructure there won't be a single nurse, doctor or midwife made redundant."

Half of the job losses at the Dudley Group are expected to be finalised by March 31, union reps confirmed.