LAST Thursday – with very little media attention – the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in the House of Lords voted to ensure greater involvement of the private sector in the NHS.

Any new service must now be put out to tender, and in this way even more of the money intended for the care of the sick and injured will go to the pockets of the shareholders in private firms.

Already money from the NHS budget is going to private profit in that many of the buildings and facilities of the NHS are, through the Private Finance Initiative, owned by the private sector and must be paid for from that budget.

Although these changes are not dramatic and are often not reported in the press, when added to the destabilising effect of massive reorganisation and local cuts morale in the service inevitably suffers.

The overall effect is one of sleepwalking towards the collapse of the one of the few remaining effective public services. Then the whole service can be run just for profit, and greed will have won again, as it does so frequently these days.

Which won’t bother those who can afford private health insurance, but I think the rest of us will miss the NHS when it’s gone.

Keith Gailer, Bewlay Street, York.