Madam,

John James is to be commended for expressing his gratitude for the life-saving treatment he received at Bronglais Hospital.

However, if our nation wishes to preserve the National Health Service as experienced by Mr James, we need to recognise the relentless drift towards privatisation, started by Blair, but greatly accelerated by the Tories.

Before the NHS was established, it was not uncommon to hear the screams of pain as people died in their homes, unable to afford medical treatment. Such desperate circumstances, exacerbated by the appalling housing crisis, doubtless prompted Aneurin Bevan to say the Tories were “lower than vermin”.

All the Tory promises of keeping the NHS “free at the point of service”, can be judged by what has happened to NHS dentistry, which is now almost as rare as the dodo, resulting in the false economy of untold thousands being treated in hospital, and the only option private dental plans, or pliers.

Yours etc,

Roger Louvet, Llanfrothen.

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