The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, yesterday ordered a report on the case of a cancer patient whose partner confronted him about the state of the National Health Service.
But as the Health Secretary, Mr Alan Milburn, defended Labour's record on health, the Liberal Democrats accused it of failing to clear up the "mess" left behind by the Conservatives, while the Tories said patients would not be "bought off" by Mr Blair's promises.
At the Labour Party's daily press conference in London, Mr Blair said he understood the "real frustration" expressed by Ms Sharron Storer and had asked for an individual report on the case of her partner, Mr Keith Sedgwick.
He is being treated for cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, and Ms Storer angrily confronted Mr Blair on Wednesday to complain about the poor facilities.
"Many would sympathise with someone showing such evident distress," Mr Blair said as he pointed out that New Labour had increased investment in the health service during the first term in power. "Yet I recognise that there are still individual people with a real sense of grievance and that there's still a lot to do in the health service."
Mr Milburn, meanwhile, sympathised with Ms Storer but said the health service could not be "fixed overnight". He told GMTV: "It takes time to build new buildings and it takes three to four years to train nurses, twice that to train doctors."
However, Ms Storer rejected Mr Milburn's assessment and said Labour had been given enough time to improve the health service. Speaking on the same programme, she said: "They keep promising to make things better, to make hospitals better, but it's just not coming through because hospitals are in the same state."
Asked if she regretted her confrontation with Mr Blair, Ms Storer said she had expressed the concerns shared by many people in Britain: "I don't have any regrets about it whatsoever and I am really pleased I did what I did."
The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, said it had taken four years "for the mask to slip", and the British public was finally witnessing the real Labour Party.
He was joined in his condemnation by the Liberal Democrats spokesman for health, Mr Nick Harvey, who said the health service had suffered because Labour stuck to Tory spending plans during its first two years in government.