Hewitt under fire over "bionic eye" overspend

The Conservative party has criticised the government over the higher than promised cost of bionic eye technology unveiled this week. The Argus II system, which uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye was developed partly by Professor Guy D'Aug of Kings College Hospital, but has cost several times the original budget. Tory health spokesman, Andrew Lansley, last night called for an inquiry into the spiralling cost of the project. "The public have a right to know whether spending in the NHS can be kept under control. Some years ago we were told that a whole man could be re-built for six million dollars - just another of this government's broken promises."