article: The Tories have accused Labour of a crude new attempt to 'weaponise' the NHS by orchestrating a letter from doctors claiming hospitals will not be safe if David Cameron wins the election. Ed Miliband was also accused of hypocrisy after he claimed that the Coalition had made it harder to get a GP appointment. Mr Miliband claimed there were now 600 fewer GP surgeries open during evenings and weekends than before the previous election – which he said was directly contributing to the A&E crisis. Scroll down for video . Labour launched a poster declaring 'the Tories have made it harder to see a GP' but critics were quick to point out that the figures were out of date . His comments came after Labour launched a poster declaring 'the Tories have made it harder to see a GP'. But critics were quick to point out that his figures were out of date – and that the GP crisis is widely blamed on Labour's GP contracts, which allowed them to opt out of out-of-hours care. Meanwhile it emerged last night that a Labour-supporting GP had circulated a letter claiming that 'five years of flat-line funding' have 'crippled the NHS'. A version of the letter – organised by Dr Clare Gerada, the former chairman of the Royal College of GPs – appeared in the Guardian signed by more than 100 doctors last night. It claimed the 'direction of travel' under the Tories was towards privatisation, adding: 'Another five years of Tory austerity will sap staff morale and reduce the NHS to a poor service for poor people'. Labour were accused of orchestrating the letter as a 'stitch up'. Conservative MP Julian Smith said: 'This Labour stitch up is another desperate attempt to weaponise the NHS. 'Under this government, we've got more doctors, more nurses and more patients being seen than ever before.' In an email obtained by the Tories, Dr Gerada said signatures were being collected to 'counter' the 100 business leaders who wrote a Tory-supporting letter to a national paper last week. Mr Miliband claimed there were now 600 fewer GP surgeries open during evenings and weekends than before the previous election – which he said was directly contributing to the A&E crisis . Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised to give NHS chiefs 'whatever they need' after the election. Mr Hunt yesterday claimed a Conservative government would find whatever money the health service said was required to cope with the growing pressure on hospitals and GP surgeries. The apparently open-ended commitment will raise eyebrows at a time when public spending is under increasing pressure. NHS chief executive Simon Stevens has said the health service needs an extra £8billion a year by 2020 just to keep standards as they are. The Tories have pledged to find huge public spending cuts, and every pound spent on the NHS means less for other priorities such as education and defence. Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: 'We will back the NHS's own plan in full ... We will give whatever they need, it might be more than £8billion, it might be less.' Dr Gerada said she was a member of the Labour party but not an 'activist' and said the letter had been organised independently. She told the Telegraph: 'It has not been orchestrated by Labour, it has been put together by me and a few other medical leaders.' The Tories say that at least two of the signatories are Labour supporters, including one who tried to stand as a Labour candidate and another who has previously spoken at the Labour Party conference. The signatories, including Professor John Ashton, retired director of public health, and Simon Capewell, professor of public health in Liverpool, wrote that the NHS 'is withering away'. They said 'if things carry on as they are then in future people will be denied care they once had under the NHS and have to pay more for health services.' Meanwhile, as figures yesterday revealed that A&E waiting times are the longest since records began in 2004/05, Mr Miliband said: 'One of the reasons for that is it's got a lot harder to see a GP. 'Across England there are some 600 fewer GP surgeries open in the evenings and at weekends than there were at the last general election.' But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Labour's 'shoddy figures are not only wrong but also expose Labour's rank hypocrisy over GP access'. Mr Hunt said the figures quoted only go up to 2013/14 and that since then, the Conservatives' extended hours scheme, announced last year, has covered 1,100 practices and helped 7.5million patients see GPs in the evenings and at weekends. He said by next year the scheme will cover 1,400 additional practices, serving 10 million more people. He added: 'The next Conservative Government will deliver a truly seven-day NHS, putting right a problem which began with Labour's disastrous 2004 GP contract.' Mr Hunt said the contract had allowed GPs to opt out of responsibility for their patients out of hours. He added that far from cutting funding, the Tories would give the NHS 'whatever it needs' if the party wins the election. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg accused Labour of 'making cheap political points using outdated statistics'. 'It's pretty rich coming from a party that blew £12billion on an NHS super computer,' he said. Mr Clegg also described shadow health secretary Andy Burnham as 'a slightly sort of cardboard cut out, a rather sort of silly Labour politician.' Medical leaders also criticised Labour's claims yesterday. GP Mike Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, said: 'Labour's poster is not fair. 'Patient access to extended hour services hasn't got worse, as these figures ignore the Prime Minister's new scheme.' Chris Leslie, shadow Treasury minister, said the figures were the latest available. Following the letter from 100 doctors claiming the NHS is not safe in Tory hands, Labour is today expected to launch a fresh attack over the health service. JAMES SLACK sifts the claims from the reality. CLAIM: There are 590 fewer GP surgeries open at evenings and weekends compared to Labour's last year in office . REALITY: Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham is using figures which compare July 2009 to the year ending April 2014 - which means they are a full year out of date. This year is crucial in comparing the record of the last two governments. In April 2014, David Cameron launched his £50million Challenge Fund to pay for GPs to open out-ofhours. It guaranteed at least one GP surgery locally would be available in the evening and weekends. The Tories say it has led to improved access for 7.5million people at 1,100 surgeries. By March next year, a further £100million will have been spent on a further 1,417 practices across the country. Overall, there are now 1,600 more GPs than in 2010. It is not the first time Labour has used old figures in what is already a dishonest election campaign. The party's claim that families are £1,600 worse off under the Tories was also 12 months past its sell-by date. CLAIM: The Tories have made it harder to see a GP . REALITY: Anybody with memory of the Blair Years will know it is Labour - and the disastrous 2004 decision to renegotiate the existing GP contract - which lies at the root of the current problems. Not only did Labour abolish the requirement for every patient to have a named GP who was responsible for them, instead attaching them only to a surgery, but, most crucially, GPs were given more money despite no longer being required to work at weekends or at night. The inevitable result? Nine out often GPs stopped providing out-ofhours care - hugely increasing the pressure on hospital A&E departments. Former health Minister Mike O'Brien said the deal Labour gave to the GPs was 'the best they ever had... they probably all voted Labour in 2005'. Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt has since made modest changes to the contract, such as giving four million over-75s a named GP, but there is still no requirement to work out- of-hours. CLAIM: The Tories have left the NHS weaker than at any stage in its history . REALITY: In the latest attempt by Labour and the Left to 'weaponise' the NHS, 100 doctors last night released a letter which claimed the NHS was 'withering away' under the Coalition and 'if things carry on as they are then in future people will be denied care they once had'. It went on: Privatisation not only threatens coordinated services but also jeopardises training of our future health care providers and medical research, particularly that of public health.' The problem is that much of the letter is at odds with the facts. Along with foreign aid, spending on the health service was ring-fenced from the cuts. Every year, it has received a real terms increase of at least 0.1 per cent. This equates to around £2.5billion extra a year. On privatisation, the NHS outsourced 4.4 per cent of its budget under the Labour party - but less than 2 per cent under the Coalition. It was Labour - not the Tories - which presided over the shameful scandals at Basildon and Mid Staffs hospitals which cost hundreds of lives.
highlights: GP circulated a letter claiming 'flat-line funding' had 'crippled' NHS .
  Version of letter appeared in the Guardian signed by more than 100 doctors .
  Claimed the 'direction of travel' under the Tories was towards privatisation .
  Labour were accused of orchestrating the letter as a 'stitch up'
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