CHASE Farm protestors accused the Government of breaking its promise over cuts to services at Chase Farm yesterday.

At a protest outside the Department of Health, Chase Farm campaigner Kate Wilkinson slammed the Conservatives for considering the same cuts at Chase Farm as the previous Labour Government.

She joined Chase Farm and Whittington Hospital campaigners, union officials and members of keep our NHS public, who fear they could still lose core services at hospitals across North London, despite Conservatives announcing a halt into all downgrade plans while a new review is carried out.

Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn handed in a petition of 15,000 signatures to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in person along with a letter highlighting Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital Trust’s decision to close 51 beds at the hospital.

Ms Wilkinson said: “This is part of a wider attack on hospitals and other health and mental health services in North London.

“Health Secretary Andrew Lansley gave us reassurances, before and after the election, that the NCL plans would be scrapped. But they are consulting on exactly the same plans. This is the first serious broken promise from the Government."

A report by the North Central London Review board keeps plans to cut consultant-led A and E, womens', childrens' and maternity services at Chase Farm on the table. Stephen Conroy, NHS chief leading the reconfiguation plans, has also refused to rule out cuts to the maternity ward, intensive care unit and children's beds from Whittington Hospital in Islington.

Both hospitals are funded by the North Central London NHS (NCL), which is expected to lose £560million in central Government funding over the next five years.

Mr Lansley visited Chase Farm in May saying he would halt the "top-down process that forces closure" of services in favour of local consultation with GPs and the public.

But he refused to guarantee the A&E department would be saved or say how long the moratorium on cuts would last.

He added: "I'm calling a halt to what NHS London was doing, not creating a new timetable.

"I can't rule out change, I can't rule out A&E closures. But we will stop forced closures.”

A statement from the Department of Health said: "The Secretary of State has pledged that, in future, all service changes must be led from the bottom-up by clinicians, patients and local authorities with an improved focus on quality. "The goal of any change to services must be to ensure patients get the best care possible, delivered to the highest standards in the most effective, efficient and personalised way.

"Today NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson has given further guidance on the four tests against which current and future reconfiguration processes will need to be assessed."