The British government has been strongly criticised over its record on the National Health Service -- this time from one of its own supporters, who is among the country's most prominent doctors.

In an interview with the left-wing magazine New Statesman, Robert Winston says the government has made medical care deeply unsatisfactory for many people.

He accuses ministers of being deceitful about their record on the NHS, which, he says, now compares unfavourably with Poland for example.

In reply, the senior minister responsible for the Health Service, the Health Secretary Alan Milburn, said the government had given the NHS its biggest-ever cash injection. Lord Winston became famous as a pioneer of in-vitro fertilisation and recently presented a BBC television series, The Human Body.

He was elevated to the House of Lords the upper chamber of the British Parliament at the behest of the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service