By political correspondent Nick Assinder

For the first time since he was "persuaded" to run for the job of London mayor, Frank Dobson must be delighted he is no longer health secretary.

The NHS always expects a bad time in the winter and handling the annual crisis is part of the secretary of state's job description.

They know that, if they can keep the lid on things, the rows will blow over once the cold season ends.

But Alan Milburn is having a far tougher time of it than many of his predecessors, both Labour and Tory.

He insists the service is coping admirably in the face of an unusually severe outbreak of flu.

And, with some difficulty, he had been managing to brush aside the opposition's claims that he was whipping up a crisis to cover up dangerous underfunding in the NHS.

Remained cool

He has remained cool and collected, even in the face of Tony Blair's admission that some patients were not getting the treatment they should.

But things are starting to look decidedly shaky for him now.

There have been well-founded reports of one patient dying as he was shuttled between three different hospitals.

And cancer patient Mavis Skeet has been told it is too late to save her life after her treatment was delayed four times during the flu crisis.

Now respected medical expert and Labour peer, Lord Robert Winston, has put the cat amongst the pigeons.

He has claimed that the government's reorganisation of the NHS had been "very bad" that ministers were being "deceitful" when claiming they had abolished the internal market and that the NHS was "much the worst in Europe."

He said the service was "gradually deteriorating" and it was time the government decided whether to fund improvements through taxation or private insurance.

These are deeply serious allegations and have to be treated as such by the government.

And, despite Lord Winston's attempt to damp down the row by claiming he believes Labour's policies are going in the right direction, he has not denied that his criticisms of the funding of the NHS are valid.

Lord Winston is not only the country's leading fertility expert but - and this is probably even more important in the New Labour world of spin and image manipulation - he is well known and respected by the public.

His hit TV series "The Human Body" was hugely popular and made him a household name.

Sure touch

The fact that he is a Labour supporter and confessed that he feels uncomfortable facing those facts while taking the Labour whip in the Lords sharpen his criticism further.

And, for the first time, Mr Milburn's sure touch seems to have deserted him.

He has branded some of Lord Winston's allegations as "simply fanciful" and suggested more cash would be put into the NHS each year as the economy grew.

But that raised the inevitable implication that, if the economy stops growing, then there will be no extra cash.

And that is Lord Winston's point - only taxation or private insurance can fill the gap.

But the government is terrified of committing itself to either as they are both hugely-controversial suggestions.

The most worrying aspect, however, is the fear amongst some MPs that the New Labour machine will now start rubbishing Lord Winston.

Suggesting some of his comments - which have been supported by other experts - are fanciful is a hint of what might be to come.

More worryingly, the Labour chair of the commons select committee on health, David Hinchliffe, has suggested Lord Winston should be thrown out of the Labour party in the Lords for expressing his views.

Some believe he has already been leaned on to "qualify" his remarks.

And many Labour backbenchers fear this sort of response to Lord Winston's criticisms will only fan the flames.

What many want is a rational debate about exactly how a modern, expensive health service should be financed.

Lord Winston's comments in the New Statesman may have started that debate.