The Government has faced further opposition to its NHS reforms after campaigners staged a sit-down protest on Westminster Bridge in central London.

Approximately 2,000 health workers and activists attended UK Uncut’s ‘Block the Bridge, Block the Bill’ demonstration ahead of the Health and Social Care Bill’s debate in the House of Lords this week.

UK Uncut said: “If we want to save our NHS we need to shout as loud as we can. No-one voted for this Bill, but together we can stop it.”

The bridge, which links St Thomas’s hospital on the southern bank with the Houses of Parliament, was closed to traffic for the event until late afternoon.

Mark Arnold, a UK Uncut spokesman, said the protest had been effective and there was a “happy, party atmosphere” among those who attended.

The sit-down protest featured many demonstrators wearing hospital scrubs and bandages with fake blood.

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said he hoped the protest would support the healthcare workers who “make our health service the envy of the world”.

The Government said the NHS reforms would give patients and doctors more choice, while encouraging the health service to focus on results, but has come up against various forms of criticism, including from the BMA, who said that the plans “pose an unacceptably high risk to the NHS in England”.

However, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley continues to back the Government’s reforms, claiming them to be “the right thing to do” for a better NHS.

The Government has claimed people who ignore receiving the seasonal flu vaccine are playing “Russian roulette with their lives”.

A DH survey found that 87% of holidaymakers get the necessary injections to combat tropical diseases, but separate figures reveal that less than half under-65s advised to get the flu jab were vaccinated.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, says there is “no reason not to get vaccinated” and urged those eligible to get the jab as soon as possible.

Pregnant women, patients with long-term conditions such as diabetes and asthma, and anyone with a neurological condition can get the vaccination free of charge.

Frontline health and social care workers, carers, pensioners and those in nursing homes are also encouraged to get vaccinated. But the survey found that only a third of frontline doctors and nurses opted to have the flu jab last winter.

More than 600 people died with flu in Britain last year, the majority of whom were young or middle aged. But the Chief Medical Officer says this number could be reduced if people took just a matter of minutes to get vaccinated.

“A five-minute appointment to have the flu jab could save your life,” said Professor Davies. “Flu can be a serious illness – particularly for those in at risk groups. It can result in a spell in hospital, and sadly, flu can kill. The best way to protect yourself is to be vaccinated.

“It takes five to ten days for the vaccine to take effect so I’d urge everyone in an at risk group to get vaccinated as soon as they are able.”

The National Director of Immunisation, Professor David Salisbury, added that it was equally as important to be covered against tropical diseases as it is the flu and the sooner they do the better.

“It is very important that people in these groups get vaccinated early in the flu season so they are protected before flu starts to circulate.

“About three-quarters of older people get their flu vaccine each year, but only around half of younger people in at risk groups get vaccinated. Seasonal flu is not the same as getting a cold – it can seriously affect your health.”