In a stormy prime minister's questions yesterday, Michael Howard attacked Tony Blair over the issue of repeated NHS operation cancellations.

The Tory leader cited the case of a 69-year-old woman who has had an operation cancelled seven times by the NHS. Margaret Dixon's story showed that Labour had failed to fix the health service, he said.

"No one denies more money is being spent on the NHS, but it hasn't reached the frontline," Howard told MPs.

A visibly angry prime minister said it was not fair to use one bad experience to rubbish the achievements of the NHS.

He told the Commons: "The fact is the vast majority of people in our NHS - and remember there is a million of them treated every 36 hours - are treated extremely well."