HEALTH Minister Caroline Flint was this week forced to apologise for a major error made by the Department of Health over allegations that Jeremy Hunt MP never actually asked for a meeting with her or the Secretary of State, Patricia Hewitt. The Minister told people in South West Surrey that there was no record of Mr Hunt ever asking for a meeting to discuss the controversial cuts being made to healthcare services in the area.On hearing the allegation, Mr Hunt wrote a strongly worded letter to Ms Flint reminding her of the numerous meeting requests he had made to her and the numerous rejections he subsequently received.He said: “It is appalling that the Department of Health can make such a claim to constituents of mine. We are fighting tooth and nail to keep our hospitals open and all Patricia Hewitt and her ministers do is sweep us under the carpet and ignore us. “To say that we have never requested a meeting with them just shows how important they think the issues in South West Surrey area. It honestly shows that this Government do not care about Milford, Haslemere, Cranleigh and the Royal Surrey County Hospital. When will they wake up and realise that they are completely out of touch with what people on the ground actually want and need.”The Department of Health blamed the mistake on an ‘administrative error’ and Caroline Flint apologised for any inconvenience caused.Jeremy said: “She may have apologised but that does nothing to ease my frustration with this situation. I want a face to face meeting with Caroline Flint as soon as possible to discuss these catastrophic changes which the NHS is undergoing currently in South West Surrey.”