PM tackled over cancelled surgery

Gordon Brown had a private meeting with Mitzi Stapleton

Prime minister Gordon Brown was confronted by a woman whose father's heart operation had been cancelled, during his visit to a Devon hospital.

Mitzi Stapleton managed to secure a private meeting with the prime minister after approaching him about the situation.

She said when she heard he was at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter she had to have a word with him.

Mr Brown also visited Cornwall's Eden Project and Plymouth in Devon.

It's not often you come out of the doors of the Royal Devon and Exeter and bump into the prime minister Mitzi Stapleton

Ms Stapleton said she had been told her 77-year-old father was unable to have his heart operation because, although the surgeon was ready to perform the procedure, there was not a bed free for him.

She said: "They said the prime minister was here and I thought someone was pulling my leg. I just thought I've got to go and have a word with him.

"It's not often you come out of the doors of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and bump into the prime minister."

Ms Stapleton spent a few minutes talking to Mr Brown in private.

Brown 'determined'

She said he had told her the hospital had a good record, but, she said: "When it's your father and he's being sent home with a heart condition it's wrong."

Ms Stapleton has been told the hospital is now looking into her father's case.

Later the prime minister told BBC News it was his responsibility to improve Labour's standing with voters in the South West after the party's poor results in last week's local elections in Exeter and Plymouth.

"I am more determined than ever to take action so that we help people with mortgages, that we help people facing utility bills," he said.