Health secretary Alan Milburn has told how the death of Northern Echo photographer Ian Weir influenced Government thinking over a historic cash injection for the NHS.

Ian died, aged 38, three years ago after waiting seven months for a triple heart bypass operation.

The Darlington father-of-two, who lived in the minister’s constituency, died the day before he finally got an appointment with a consultant about when the operation would take place.

His death led to one of the most passionate campaigns in the history of The Northern Echo, A Chance To Live, which exposed the gulf in waiting times for heart bypass operations in this country compared to the rest of Europe.

The campaign was picked up by the nationals and television and led to the country’s first national framework for coronary care.

Now, Mr Milburn has spoken about the tragedy in the wake of the Government’s announcement in the Budget that an extra £40bn is to be invested in the health service.

In an exclusive interview with Echo parliamentary correspondent Simon Page, Mr Milburn said he was “powerfully scarred” by the experience of Ian and it brought home the urgent need to overhaul the NHS.

He said: “Part of the reason why I have given such a strong personal commitment to improving heart services and getting waiting times down for heart surgery is what happened to Ian.

“What happened is very powerfully scarred on the memories of everybody, including me, and you really have to avoid that situation happening again.

“What we are going to be able to do is that, now we have the maximum waiting time down for heart surgery down to 12 months, we want to take that further.”

But he added: “You can only do that when you have got the capacity. But there is an absolute commitment on my part, a personal commitment on my part, that improvements in heart services in the NHS will get a fair share of these growing NHS resources.”

Click for more on the Echo campaign.

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