Betrayal on cancer care: NHS teams have lost £6.7m in funding despite PM's pledges

Cancer-busting NHS teams have lost £6.7million of funding and 20% of staff despite David Cameron's pledge to spare the NHS from cuts.

Networks combining doctors, nurses and other health workers have seen budgets slashed by 25% over three years - from £26.2million in 2009 to £19.5million this year, figures obtained by Labour under freedom of ­information laws show.

Heart disease and stroke teams have just £13.2million after a 12% reduction of £1.9million.

And staff numbers for all teams have dropped by 110 to 492, with cancer teams losing 72.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt claimed last month budgets for the networks had been protected, but the Tories have now admitted breaking election pledges on NHS funding. The party's website dropped claims spending had increased over the past two years, after the UK Statistics Authority ruled that was false.

The cuts come as experts claim the networks save countless lives. Professor Sir Roger Boyle, ex-NHS heart disease and stroke boss, said: "They've helped bring a 50% reduction in deaths from two of our big killers, heart disease and stroke."

And Shadow Health Minister Liz Kendall added: "Ministers ­promised to protect funding, yet these figures show this is another in a long list of broken promises.

"The Government should be working to support specialists. Instead, David Cameron has wasted two-and-a-half years and billions of pounds on an unnecessary reorganisation.

"He's throwing the networks into chaos and putting the improvements patients need at risk."

The Department of Health claimed the amount the Government directly invests had not changed.