Senior doctors have launched a broadside against setting up a 'dangerously isolated' cardiac and cancer centre at St Bartholemew's Hospital, London.

Consultants from Barts and the London trust have re-ignited their campaign after London regional office approved plans to split acute services between Bart's and the Royal London Hospital in a£462m redevelopment.

They have written to every MP in the capital - including Labour mayoral candidate Frank Dobson, who stopped its closure while he was health secretary - demanding to know why Bart's was 'saved' in its new form.

Mr Dobson's rival, Ken Livingstone, who could still stand as an independent, also received the letter, as did health secretary Alan Milburn's parliamentary private secretary, Jim Fitzpatrick.

Liberal Democrat Susan Kramer and Conservative Stephen Norris, both mayoral candidates, have not been contacted as they are not London MPs.

Consultants claim that providing cardiac and cancer services at Bart's while accident and emergency services and general surgery are provided in Whitechapel is 'dangerous' and 'utterly ridiculous'.

Anaesthetist Stuart Withington said it went against medical and organisational developments. 'There is no-one else in the world planning a new hospital development of this scale in this way.'

Gastroenterologist Professor David Wingate said there was 'serious risk to patients' at Bart's, left miles from a 24hour on-call surgical team.

The NHS Executive changed the trust's plans last month, moving 26 cancer beds from Bart's back to the Royal London.

Health minister John Denham, launching the revised strategy, claimed credit for 'providing a secure future for Bart's'.

But Dr Withington said the changes 'merely illustrate how silly the whole thing is - we are not doing major bowel cancer surgery at Bart's because it is so isolated, so why have everything else there?'

He said the scheme was 'totally unfair' to people in 'one of the most deprived areas of London'.

The trust was unable to comment on the doctors' campaign.