David Cameron visited Kingston Hospital in the run-up to the General Election.

In an interview with the Surrey Comet he promised the hospital had a safe future.

NHS campaigners have been poring over his words since the hospital confirmed on Friday it was cutting 486 jobs over five years as a result of a £13.1m cut in funding.

The efficiency cut decision was made by a joint committee of five primary care trusts, including Kingston and Richmond, including input from Kingston's GPs.

David Cameron: "Our first priority is the NHS.

"We’ve said that, while there have to be difficult decisions about budgets in many other departments, the NHS is special.

"Special to my family, special to every family in the country and we want to expand in it and invest in it and the NHS budget under a Conservative government will rise, more than inflation, every year.

"In terms of Kingston Hospital, we support it and back it and we want to stop this London review that the Labour government have put in place that’s threatening many services at many hospitals, including here in Kingston, so Kingston has a safe future under a Conservative government.

"Their future should depend on the choices that patients and GPs make, and overwhelmingly patients and local GPs in Kingston support this hospital and the excellent maternity unit which I’ve seen for myself."

Surrey Comet: How real is the threat to Kingston Hospital?

David Cameron: "I think the Lib Dems probably overstate the threat and they do that because... well, that’s what they tend to do.

"But there are threats from the London-wide review that has been taking place and Labour have endless had these re-configurations and reviews.

"They have shut Accident and Emergency and Maternity Units in other parts of the country and other parts of London.

"And, as I say, what hospitals should depend on is the choices the patients and the doctors make. And the patients and doctors choose to back this hospital.

"We should support them in that."

Surrey Comet: Where is the money going to come from?

David Cameron: "We say that other departments clearly are going to have a more difficult time. We’ve made our choice and our choice is that the NHS is special.

"And also, remember that the NHS is going to face lots of pressures from the cost of drugs and new treatments.

"These are extra costs which we need to meet. So we are going to have to take difficult decisions, but we say let’s start at the centre; let’s start cutting the size of Parliament, cutting the cost of Whitehall, getting rid of the quangos...

"Let’s actually do that before making difficult decisions about departments.

"In terms of the health service, we want a choice-driven system.

"So, patients, with their GPs, should have greater choice in which hospitals they are treated in.

"The money in the NHS should follow the patient.

"And so, good successful popular hospitals like this will be able to expand and grow.

"It’s not about politicians making decisions about the NHS, that’s what Labour do.

"What the Conservatives say, is let the patients choose and let the hospitals and the health service reflect the choices the patients make."