In the wake of the House of Lords vote on the Tory-led NHS reforms coming up on Wednesday, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said in a recent warning that the NHS presently appears to be in the "danger zone"!

With several thousand campaigners recently converging on Parliament, in a demonstration against the proposed overhaul of the health service, Burnham warned that Parliament has 48 hours in which to rescue the NHS from Health Minister Andrew Lansley's disastrous plans that the Government intends to put into action.

Under the NHS reform plans, Lansley intends handing a whopping 80 percent of the NHS' £120billion budget to GPs; and opening uo the prospects of competition between hospitals and private health firms.

Since the MPs have already voted through Lansley's plans for the revamp of the health service, Burnham pointed out that the House of Lords was clearly the last line of defence against the rather grim proposals; and added that it is well within the reach of the Lords to "bring the NHS back from the brink."

Further adding that a wrong choice on the part of the Lords will surely not be forgiven by NHS patients as well as staff, Prof Burnham expressed the hope that "people from all walks of life will encourage their Lordships to stand up for our NHS and tell the Government enough is enough"!