A HOSPITAL consultant in Bury has threatened to resign if his demands for urgent Government action to end a cash crisis in the borough's health service are not met.

Speaking exclusively to the Bury Times, Dr Anton Sinniah said he would not only leave Bury but quit his career in medicine altogether.

The consultant chest physician has written to the Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, urging him to intervene before there is "a detrimental effect on health care delivery" in the borough.

His letter follows action by Dr Sinniah and his colleagues in March when they broke their professional silence to apologise to the people of Bury for "failing" them.

The doctors, all acute medical consultants working for Bury Health Care NHS Trust, blamed a lack of funding and accused Bury's MPs, David Chaytor and Ivan Lewis, of doing little to help resolve the crisis, a claim angrily denied by the two Labour politicians, who responded by claiming that the doctors were being "politically motivated".

Now in his letter Dr Sinniah charges Mr Milburn "with the responsibility of addressing these issues" and holds him "accountable for the outcome".

Dr Sinniah said: "I had hoped that by breaking our professional silence in March something would have been done. But nothing has changed and we are still back where we were when we first spoke out. "The situation is so desperate that I feel that I have no choice but to go straight to the top."

Dr Sinniah claims that many departments cannot operate fully because of lack of equipment and resources.

He states in his letter: "The staff who are currently within the Trust cannot continue to cope with the demands that are now expected within the health service."

According to Dr Sinniah, Bury Health Care NHS Trust has been receiving "well below" average funding for the last ten years, claims which he says are substantiated by a firm of independent auditors who estimate the Trust has lost £20 million per year, a total of £200 million over the last ten years.

He says the underfunding is responsible for Bury General and Fairfield hospitals having one of the lowest numbers of doctors and nurses per 100 beds in the country.

His claim was recently backed up by a survey by the The Sunday Times which ranked Bury Health Care NHS Trust ninth worst out of the 20 trusts nationwide who employed the fewest doctors.

The same report also claimed a link between death rates and the number of doctors, arguing that the more doctors a hospital had the lower its death rates. Bury's hospitals have one of the highest death rates in the country.

A meeting with senior management and clinical directors was called last month to discuss the financial situation.

The letter to Mr Milburn states: "I am afraid to say Mr Evan Boucher (director of planning at Bury and Rochdale Health Authority) was unable to address these issues satisfactorily. It is for this reason I am now raising the matter with you because I do not feel satisfied that those who are responsible for letting this situation arise are in a position to investigate it impartially or correct the imbalance."

The doctor, who has been working for the Trust since August 1999 continued: "If things do not improve I cannot see myself working for the NHS. I will leave medicine altogether.

"However, I would like to continue to work for the Bury Trust because it has so much potential. The staff are outstanding in what they do and the conditions they have to work in. If we could get the funding, Bury's hospitals would provide a first-class leading service."

Both Mr Chaytor and Mr Lewis were unavailable for comment this week.