Sir — I strongly support the plea by former GP colleague, Richard Thorne, for more publicity about the serious threat of privatisation of the NHS (Letters, April 4) which the general public seems remarkably unaware of.
In an editorial in the current issue of the British Medical Journal, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (which has nearly 50,000 GP members) writes that the Health and Social Care Act which came into force on April 1, 2013: “allows for the wholesale dismantling of the NHS and privatisation of the supply, organisation, planning, finance and distribution of health care.”
Dr Clare Garada concludes that: “the current policy that puts GPs in the invidious position of presiding over the dismantling of our NHS is a monumental betrayal of the public by the Government and it will ultimately damage the trust between GPs and their patients.”
Inspired by the prospect of working in the new NHS, I came to Oxford in 1950 to study medicine and, in due course, spent nearly 40 years as a GP here (and became the University’s first professor of general practice).
As Thorne says, there remain great concerns about the extent to which private companies will take over NHS services.
Although now a retiree for many years, as a potential patient these days I hope the NHS will still be there when I need it.
Godfrey Fowler, Oxford