7/7 victims told: Therapy cash has run out

People left mentally scarred by their experiences during the 2005 bombings have been told they no longer qualify for priority help - and have been advised to visit their GPs instead.

Campaigners warned the move could even drive people still suffering from post traumatic shock to suicide. Many face year-long waits for mental health treatment on the NHS.

Opposition MPs have demanded that ministers reverse the decision to stop funding the Trauma Response Programme, set up two years ago.

Shadow health minister Mike Penning told the Evening Standard: "It was brave enough for these people to seek help in the first place.

"Continuity is vital in treating them but now they will be put back in the system without knowing what will happen to them.

"This is a betrayal of the victims of 7/7," he said.

Mind, the mental health charity, said it was another example of how mental health services were a low priority for the Government.

The attacks on London's transport network were Britain's largest mass casualty event since the Second World War, killing 56 people and injuring 775. Countless more were psychologically scarred by what they witnessed.

At least 900 survivors have been treated by the programme.

Clinical psychologists, including those from University College London and the Maudsley, have helped people suffering from symptoms of post traumatic stress, such as flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety.

The withdrawal of funding means that 7/7 patients will no longer get priority treatment and will have to join NHS waiting lists, which in some areas are more than a year long.

Jacqui Putnam, a survivor of the Edgware Road bombing, said: "I feel very let down. This should be a priority service and the fear is there will be suicides because people will not be getting the help they need."

A report on the programme's performance is due to be published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress next month.

It found that many survivors were left suffering from travel phobia and major depression after seeing people dead and maimed in the blasts.

But it concluded that at least four out of every five patients have benefited from the "psychological first aid" as well as more intensive therapy that the programme offers.

Professor Anke Ehlers, one of the report's authors, said: "This specialist treatment is so important because trauma can lead to relationship breakdown and destroy people's lives."

The report recommends that the NHS should fund a network of specially trained psychologists who would be on stand-by to help survivors of future national disasters.

But the Standard has learned the NHS has already rejected this proposal.

A spokesman for the Department of Health spokesman said the programme had been established by the health service to "offer support to adults and children who suffered trauma-related mental health problems in the aftermath of the 7 July bombings".

He added: "This was a unique response to an unprecedented event and although the programme has come to an end, all those who need help will still receive help from the NHS.

"The World Health Organisation regards our mental health services as among the best in Europe and the NHS will do all it can to support those who need it most."