Cameron Calls For Summit On NHS Reforms

David Cameron is making a fresh attempt to win over critics of his highly contentious NHS reforms by holding a meeting with healthcare professionals to discuss their implementation.

Monday's gathering at Downing Street comes after opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill appeared to spread last week to Tory members of the Cabinet .

But there have been claims that some organisations most critical of the Bill, such as the Royal College of GPs, have not been invited.

Downing Street would not disclose who had been invited to attend the meeting, saying only that it was a "range of national healthcare organisations and clinical commissioning groups".

A spokeswoman said it was being held "to discuss implementation of the health reforms with representatives from a range of national healthcare organisations and clinical commissioning groups.

"This forms part of the Government's ongoing dialogue with health practitioners about the implementation of these reforms."

Labour is calling for the Bill to be scrapped.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham criticised the Prime Minister for talking about implementing reforms that were not yet on the statute book.

"The very title of this hastily-convened event gives the game away," he said.

"It reveals just how rattled the Prime Minister must be if he is resorting to tactics like this and applying pressure in this way.

"It may sound like a small point to David Cameron but I wish to remind him that he doesn't yet have Parliament's permission to implement reforms nobody wants and for which no one voted.

"This has all the hallmarks of an event thrown together in a last-ditch desperate bid to shore up collapsing support for the Bill."

Members of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have joined several Royal Medical Colleges, including the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Radiologists, in calling for the Bill to be abandoned.

Unions, including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives are also among those opposed to the reforms.

Mr Cameron reaffirmed his support for the Bill last weekend after reports that three Tory Cabinet ministers were against the Bill and influential website Conservative Home urged him to drop it.

He insisted he was "at one" with his beleaguered Health Secretary Andrew Lansley .