Madam,

Tom Brooks describes the large number of NHS patients suffering long delays for treatment (‘More than 7,900 patients waiting more than 36 weeks for treatment’). He may be justified in his criticism of the Betsi Cadwaladr management team, but I feel we should have a wider perspective.

He says the situation is much better in England, but that is not the case with IVF treatment. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has just reported that IVF treatment has slumped to the lowest level ever recorded, forcing desperate couples either to contemplate exorbitant private treatment, or despair of never having a family.

The entire health service is being starved of funds deliberately to create crisis, compelling people to turn to the ever-growing private provision, as has already happened with dentistry.

That was the reason for the critical clause, 161, in Andrew Lansley’s 2012 NHS Bill, which, stripped of its legal, weasel wording translates that ‘There is an obligation on a foundation trust to ensure its NHS work is greater than its private work’.

That permits up to 49 per cent of private treatment, when the then current private treatment was four per cent.

I encourage the reader to search online for the private medical business interests of our noble Lords and honourable Members of Parliament.

Yours etc, Roger Louvet, Porthmadog.

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