Sir,

I can remember the hope when people in 1948 who were ill could go to a doctor without being a charity case if they were one of the deserving poor not one of the undeserving poor.

I remember the '50s in Scarborough where workers form the industrial north came on holiday, many deformed by rickets, many with industrial injuries made much worse by lack of medical care.

We spend half as much as USA per head on health care. The NHS was being rapidly improved. Now wards are closing, hospitals closing and beds closing. In West Wales, patients now have travel as far as Llanelli for services which until this year were on their doorstep.

We are seeing our National Health service being torn to pieces and thrown to the wolves. We will all pay the price of privatisation. It is not too late to stop the chaos which only serves to allow highly paid doctors to ration services and three multinational companies run by bankers to decide whch services to provide or not.

I cannot understand that the rich who can afford private health care need to deny the same treatment for the rest of us,

Ian Campbell Ruytger,

The Green,