Sham consultation on NHS

WHAT a hypocritical sham the public consultation process will prove to be over NHS Sustainability And Transformation Plans (SATP) which Tories David Tredinnick and Cllr Mike Hall are urging your readership to become involved with. The public have no expertise as to how resources should be allocated, and can only protest if they fear that services such as A&E will be cut.

As if the Tories will take notice of such protests! Their agenda is to cut, cut and cut again the NHS until it dies of a thousand cuts, with privateers quietly and gradually picking up the pieces.

Notice that Mr Tredinnick slips in the weasel phrase “I believe these proposals go some way to achieving this”, ie “the best quality care.”

He carefully avoids the word “cuts” as does the SATP, preferring the weasel word “transformation”.

You do not have to be a genius to work out that making A&E departments more scattered and harder to access due to traffic congestion will lead to higher mortality rates - this from a government which used the very argument of preventing higher mortality rates in its sevenday NHS campaign and fall-out with the doctors.

Come off it, Mr Tredinnick, you know perfectly well that this public consultation exercise is just a ploy and a sham to justify doing what your horrid government plans to do anyway! John Payne by email