IT WAS good to see so many people on the Defend Our NHS York march on Saturday. The listening exercise undertaken by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will finish at the end of next week, so it is important people make their voices heard.

David Cameron was right to say this is not another re-organisation, because it isn’t. It is the sale of the NHS.

Mr Lansley had the idea when he was working on the sale of our utilities – gas, water and electric – and he thought it would be a good thing to do to our NHS.

We only have to look at the reports last week on the state of our railways when they were broken up to see what fate will befall the NHS. Our taxes will be used to pay dividends and bonuses to shareholders and company directors in private health companies, who have been circling since the Bill was published.

Once the NHS is sold, we will never again have a public NHS, and patients with complex health care needs, with expensive conditions and those with long–term conditions, will find it so much harder to receive the care and clinical support they need.

Coun Christina Funnell, Upper Price Street, York.