ONE of the North East’s leading doctors yesterday urged David Cameron to “cut his losses” on controversial NHS reforms as Labour claimed they could be the Prime Minister’s “Waterloo”.

Dr George Rae, chairman of the North East British Medical Association, issued his appeal after reports that three Tory Cabinet ministers reportedly “rang the alarm bell” over the overhaul – with one comparing it to the poll tax.

And Commons health committee member Grahame Morris, MP for Easington, compared the Prime Minister to “Napoleon” at the Battle of Waterloo amid criticism from within Tory and Liberal Democrats ranks of the Health and Social Care Bill.

The Government has already had to make more than 100 changes to the Bill.

But that has failed to quell critics, including medical professional bodies such as the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing.

Dr Rae said: “To me there is now a very significant growing feeling of almost inevitability about what is going to happen to this Bill.”

“I think it is now time, if I was Cameron, to think: ‘do I finally cut my losses over the NHS reforms?’.”

He added the need to save £20bn in the NHS over the next few years was a big enough challenge for doctors by itself.

Labour MP Grahame Morris said: “I think it could be Cameron’s poll tax, it could be his Waterloo - his part being Napoleon.”

Northumberland Tory peer Lord Vinson said the NHS had to change because of the demands placed on it by an ageing population.