Service is in real danger

Alan Wright (February 21) gave a plausible explanation for the reason he thought a Tory Government would never privatise the NHS totally.

He mentioned Labour in a negative manner, blaming them for introducing privatisation in the health service.

Labour did what was necessary for upkeep of the NHS at the time and they had a high satisfaction rate from the public.

What Mr Wright didn’t mention was the perilous position the coalition and now the current Tory Government have engineered our health service into.

It was no surprise when Mr Wright unceremoniously accused people, like me, of spreading a lie when we say that users may have to pay for NHS services.

He is wrong. The situation under his Government has deteriorated to the extent that people are concerned for its very existence.

Under those circumstances patients would have to pay for medical treatment.

Concern is not a lie. A lie is when David Cameron informed the nation the NHS would be safe in his hands.

How can there be any confidence in the Minister of Health, Jeremy Hunt, when he said the health service should be dismantled?

The Government has lifted the cap on privatisation. They have changed the requirement on GPs consortia from the NHS as the preferred provider to any qualified provider and increased the amount Trusts can earn from private patients. Income and private consortiums are winning more health service contracts.

The director of the NHS Support Federation (who presumably knows a bit more about the matter than Mr Wright) states: “If we stay on the same path the NHS will be dominated by big business and there’s a real danger it will not survive.”

W Quinn

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