ANOTHER health row erupted yesterday as Vale MP Peter Luff accused health secretary Patricia Hewitt of trying to pin the blame for the NHS's financial woes on "better-off areas" like Worcestershire.

The furious MP said: "To blame us for our deficits is rather like blaming the victim of a knife crime for getting in the way of the knife - but on this occasion the knife is being wielded by the Secretary of State.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Ms Hewitt said 'most of the over-spending occurred in better-off areas with a generally healthier population and most under-spending was in places with far greater health needs and inequalities. We are not prepared to allow that unfairness to continue.'

She pledged to send turn-around teams to the trusts, warning those with large deficits will be targeted for workforce reductions, including compulsory job losses.

But Mr Luff responded: "It's outrageous that the secretary of state is trying to play the blame game with counties like Worcestershire for the NHS cash crisis.

"Patricia Hewitt is making a cynical attempt to conjure up an image of the affluent milking the system at the expense of the poor. Nothing could be further from the truth. The South Worcestershire PCT and the Worcestershire Acute Hospital Trust are both in deficit, but the blame can't be pinned on mismanagment."

He added: "We've got deficits because ministers have landed us with a PFI hospital, costing £7 million a year more than equivalent hospitals and because ministers don't give us a fair share of total NHS spending."