The Health Secretary's path to Downing Street was blocked by one elderly campaigner who shouted: "People are waiting for a bed and waiting times are going up - you can wait for a change."

But Mr Lansley could only bluster the tired mantra: "We will not privatise the NHS, it's not for sale" before saying nervously: "Excuse me, I'm going in there."

Other protesters at the Downing St gates chanted: "Kill the Bill, it will make you ill" and held placards that read: "Saving the NHS is a matter of life and death" with a picture of a tombstone enscribed with the words "NHS: 1948-2011."

Campaigners and politicians branded the meeting with those in favour of NHS reform a "PR disaster" and a case of "divide and rule," with those opposed to it such as the Royal College of GPs, the British Medical Association and Unison given the cold shoulder.

Easington Labour MP Grahame Morris said: "If Prime Minister David Cameron thought this meeting would be a PR coup he has made another terrible misjudgement.

"This meeting has turned into a summit of the uninvited with the major trade unions and royal colleges representing 90 per cent of NHS staff excluded.

"Lansley who was accosted in the street by a pensioner protesting at his NHS privatisation plans should cut his losses, drop the Bill and do the honourable thing and resign."

Labour leader Ed Miliband had earlier accused ministers of having a "bunker mentality" in a speech at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, London.

And author Marcus Chown, who joined the Downing St protest, said: "This Bill is a poison chalice for GPs.

"It's not going to empower them, it's going to ensure that they will be the ones to blame when things go wrong.

"The Bill is nothing more than hidden privatisation."

GP Dr Ron Singer added: "The PM has lied. He has ignored hard evidence and statistics and is determined to privatise the NHS."

Before the summit a Downing Street spokesman, who refused to reveal who had been invited, said: "There will be dialogue. The PM will be saying something, the people around the table will be saying something."

Speaking to the Morning Star outside Downing Street following the summit chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network Sue Slipman described "widespread concerns" over the reforms, particularly over the transitional period and making the government listen.

But the PM said he was "committed" to pushing through the reforms following the meeting.

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