TORY leader David Cameron will see the problems faced by the health service in Suffolk at first hand when he visits Ipswich Hospital tomorrow.Mr Cameron asked to visit the hospital as part of a regional tour of East Anglia, and is expected to be briefed on its problems by chief executive Andrew Reed and other senior managers.

TORY leader David Cameron will see the problems faced by the health service in Suffolk at first hand when he visits Ipswich Hospital tomorrow.

Mr Cameron asked to visit the hospital as part of a regional tour of East Anglia, and is expected to be briefed on its problems by chief executive Andrew Reed and other senior managers.

Suffolk MPs Tim Yeo and John Gummer have brought the problems of Ipswich Hospital to Mr Cameron's attention and he has also discussed its plight with Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley.

Mr Yeo is currently away at an environmental conference in California, but told The Evening Star he was confident his leader knew much about the problems faced by the hospital.

He said: “I have spoken to him about the problems facing the health service in Suffolk, particularly issues with the hospitals at Ipswich and elsewhere in the county.”

“Ipswich is in a serious situation and I am sure Mr Cameron will be very interested to hear about the problems it is facing.”

Mr Yeo felt it was vital that Mr Cameron should visit Ipswich because that would be a key seat in the next general election.

He said: “I understand we are now quite close to chosing a candidate for the seat and it is somewhere that we think can easily be won for the party.”

Ipswich Conservative chairman Gavin Maclure said he hoped Mr Cameron's visit would shine even more of a spotlight on the hospital's problems.

He said: “I think it is great that he is coming here. The town is a key target and the hospital's problems are very well known.

It is very that he will be getting a first-hand view of the problems we are facing here.”

However Ipswich Labour MP Chris Mole was unimpressed by the prospect of a visit.

He said: “I hope Mr Cameron is prepared to answer questions about what he would do if he was in power.

“He should be asked whether he supports the chancellor's decision to put up national insurance to provide more money from the NHS.

“He should be asked whether he still supports the Conservative policy at the last election of introducing patient passports which would have taken money out of the NHS.

“And he should be asked whether he supports the improvements to the hospital over the last nine years which means that waiting lists have been slashed and no one has to wait too long in A&E.

“Put bluntly he needs to be asked if he could really solve any of the problems that his party is so keen to talk about at the moment.”