ONE of the North West's leading health experts has quit his Government job with a stinging attack on the "bureaucratic" NHS.

Professor John Ashton, the Department of Health's top health adviser in the region, said he was fed up of Government reforms.

He said he was frustrated the NHS was "taking the eye off the ball all the time" through replacing health authorities "every two or three years".

He hit out at the "kind of bureaucratic approach which is now in place" which meant the North West "still hasn't still got a proper public health system".

Professor Ashton, who will step down in September, has been the North West Regional Director of Public Health for the last 13 years.

He said: "I am disappointed by the NHS recurrent re-organisation.

"Every time there is a reorganisation the people that are doing it are convinced that this is the solution."

He went on: "We need a good robust public health system that's accountable to local people and this isn't about changing the structures every two or three years."

Professor Qutub Syed, director of the Health Protection Agency North West, the Government's infectious diseases body, said: "John has been the main driver of public health initiatives in this region for the past 24 years and is one of the people who can retire from work knowing that he made a real and lasting difference to people's lives."