As reported in The Cornishman/West Briton http://www.cornishman.co.uk/Letters-September-14-2014/story-22876499-det...

A privatised NHS

ANDREW GEORGE, MP, may be a couple of years late but at least he is going public about the idiocies of our government's venture to abolish the NHS.

Three years ago I warned against relinquishing millions of pounds of funding away from the NHS and donating it to the likes of Serco, the conglomerate that has fingers in every pie but is master of none, especially not one like the NHS, which can never be run as a profit-making establishment.

In 2011, I again highlighted the fact that when Serco was gifted another £280 million of NHS money to run Suffolk's community health services and Kent's facilities contracts they were handing 'health' money to a company which was involved with £20 billion of contracts ranging from ferry services, the UK Borders Agency, atomic weapons, school inspections, leisure centres and electronic tagging devices – remember, this is the same company which charged our government for tagging people who were already in jail or dead.

Thankfully for us, and Andrew George, Serco is now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.

Not satisfied with this blunder, we also saw the transfer of thousands of patients care treatment transferred from our NHS into the hands of Peninsula Community Health along with, at the same time, the appointment of Cornwall Council's assistant chief executive onto Peninsula's board. And I beg the question, 'who are Peninsula?'

In the past decade, health funding in England has risen from £57 billion a year to £110 billion, yet only one in six NHS trusts will break even. Between 2002 and 2012 the NHS recruited an additional 5,020 managers, yet prescription fraud still costs the taxpayer more than £200 million, enough to pay for 10,000 nurses.

No, we do not want or need the NHS to be privatised, we just want it managed effectively. We want the staff appreciated and we want them listened to, so why are our other Cornish MPs not standing up for our beloved NHS alongside Andrew?

DEREK ELLIOTT

Angarrack