by Lamiat Sabin in Westminster

PROTESTERS with fake wounds and bloody bandages staged a “die-in” outside the Department of Health in London yesterday before submitting a petition to save the NHS.

The “battered” activists chanted against the Tory health policies that have imposed funding cuts, privatisation and the shutdown of vital hospital services. At least 10,000 signatures were handed over.

General union GMB organiser Rehana Azam said health was an issue integral to the election and urged voters to make a stand on May 7.“People love the NHS. We are united on the NHS,” she declared.

At least £20 billion of cuts have been imposed by David Cameron’s government over the past five years, but last month he claimed that protesters were “scaremongering”.

A&E departments at London hospitals Central Middlesex and Hammersmith closed last September.

Around 60 per cent of Charing Cross hospital is already earmarked for the bulldozer.

Hammersmith’s Labour MP Andy Slaughter said at the protest that A&E units may be replaced with “urgent care centres,” with only around 25 beds planned for Charing Cross.

Downsizing may be rolled out to other parts of the country, he warned, and needs to be stopped.

“We have a stark choice,” he said.“Hunt, Cameron and the big US health companies trying to get a foot in the door — it’s clear that they don’t support the NHS and that they would be happy to see it in private hands.”

Meanwhile, Hinchingbrooke Hospital, formerly Britain’s only privately managed NHS site, reported a £14m deficit. It was returned to the state by profiteer Circle seven years early on April 1.