London: Britain’s health secretary complained about an advertisement run by Rudy Giuliani on Thursday. He complained that Giuliani had maligned Britain’s health care system with bad statistics.

Rudy Giuliani, the U.S. Republican presidential candidate, launched a radio advertisement said that the proposals from Democrats such as Hilary Clinton smacked of European–style socialism that would lower standards in US.

The former New York mayor said, “I had prostate cancer five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer – and, thank God, I was cured of it – in the United States? 82 per cent. My chance of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 per cent under socialised medicine.”

Alan Johnson, Britain Health Secretary said that Giuliani’s statistics were wrong and the survival rate under Britain’s National Health Service was in fact much higher.  
   
Mr Johnson said, “The British NHS should not become a political football in American presidential politics. Our rate of prostate cancer survival is actually much higher than has been claimed. The latest data shows a survival rate of over 70 per cent – and increasing.”

Britain’s five-year survival rate from prostate cancer is 74.4 per cent, according to National Statistics.  

Mr. Giuliani did not respond immediately, but his spokeswoman Maria Comella said that Giuliani got the figures from a magazine article, written by David Gratzer who is also an adviser to Mr Giuliani’s campaign.

Gratzer acknowledged that the statistics is seven years old.

But, the spokeswoman insisted that Mr. Giuliani would continue to repeat the statistic and run the advertisement.

An analysis of mortality rates suggests that 25 out of 100,000, die of prostate cancer in United States and Britain each year.  

Mr. Johnson also cited a report and said, “While neither health system is perfect, the recent Commonwealth Fund report placed the UK system at the top of its analysis and the US at the bottom.”

American health experts disputed both the accuracy of Mr. Giuliani’s figures and asked whether it was fair to make a direct comparison.  

“It is impossible to say whether a prostate cancer patient has a better chance of surviving under a capitalistic or socialistic medical system”, said, Brantley Thrasher, at the University Of Kansas Department Of Urology.

Ian Thompson, of the University of Texas, said, “Certainly, if you intensively screen for prostate cancer, you will find early disease. And simply because you find it earlier, you will always have longer survival after the disease is diagnosed.”

In the presidential campaign, the issue of healthcare will be a key battleground. Democratic candidates, including Mrs. Clinton, have farmed plans for extending the coverage to the tens of millions of citizens without health insurance.