"The NHS stripped down like a derelict house" | @guardianletters

Harry Leslie Smith’s account of his sister’s death in 1926 and his eulogy to the NHS moved numerous readers. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

I was born in 1937, and when I was a month outdated my father collapsed in Stratford Substantial Street with pneumonia and pleurisy. When he was sufficiently recovered, he invested some weeks convalescing, for the duration of that time my mother had no revenue and the last of my parents’ funds went on having to pay for an ambulance to deliver him home.

Later on I keep in mind my father when he was working as an orthopaedic technician, receiving off his pushbike, and possessing heard about the new NHS, greeting my mom with the phrases “Thank goodness, we shall never ever have to fear about obtaining sick once more” (What happened to the globe my generation developed?, G2, five June)

So my generation is healthier and living longer thanks to the care we have obtained throughout our lives from a support run by devoted clinicians and not run for profit by the least expensive supplier. We have heard so a lot about the excessive “cost” of the NHS, but this belies the truth that in England we devote much less per capita on overall health than most other produced nations.

Of course those promulgating this myth typically have vested interests in the private firms, typically foreign, that are gathering like vultures in the hope of the excess fat earnings they hope to make from our illnesses and well being demands.

The politicians behind these insidious programs are intent on dismantling a service which was, before they interfered, the envy of the planet. But then they are far too youthful to bear in mind life prior to the NHS, and if factors get actually grim they can afford to shell out for private care.
Mabel Taylor
Knutsford, Cheshire

Illustration: Gary Kempston

• The solution to Harry Leslie Smith’s question is that Conservative MPs, this kind of as Oliver Letwin and John Redwood, received their hands on it. When doing work for Rothschild bank’s international privatisation department, they laid strategies for the Well being and Social Care Act which have been fleshed out in the Adam Smith Institute’s report, The Wellness of Nations, in 1988, the very same year Previous Etonian Letwin published his book Privatising the World. In 2004, Letwin, then Tory shadow chancellor, invited businessmen to his West Dorset constituency, encouraging them to work with each other to win contracts for a new PFI regional hospital. In accordance to a single participant, Letwin informed his audience that inside of five years of a Conservative victory “the NHS will not exist any more”.

Letwin, now minister of government policy, has overseen each overall health secretarys’ operate considering that the 2010 election. The bill widens the door, opened by New Labour, to NHS privatisation, closure of hospital solutions, promoting off hospital land to produce a support funded, not from standard taxation but by personal payments to insurance companies. As Harry puts it: ” … the NHS stripped down like a derelict home …”

As Michael Portillo said: “They [the Tories] did not think they could win an election if they informed you what they have been going to do [to the NHS]…”
David Murray
Wallington, Surrey

• My father was born in the workhouse infirmary in Colchester in 1900. My mother’s loved ones fled from the horrible poverty of Glasgow’s Gorbals to London in 1904. I was fortunate to invest my early life in a country in which situations enhanced. I am only 79, but I keep in mind when the Labour get together defended the weak the sick and the bad. I pray that the two Eds, Miliband and Balls, read through Harry’s touching story of his sister Marion’s life and death.
John Munson
Maidstone, Kent

• Dear Harry, thank you for reminding us of the terrible conditions that the NHS replaced. Rarely have I been so moved by an report in the Guardian. The piece by Harry Leslie Smith, so superbly written, ought to be sent to every MP and member of the Home of Lords who voted for the Health and Social Care Act so that they can realise the enormity of what they have carried out.
Ann Lynch
Skipton, North Yorkshire

• I am in my 70th 12 months, rather than the 91 many years of Harry, but I also despair at the dismantling of the welfare state that meant so a lot to working-class folks. How is it that the elderly can neglect so effortlessly and vote for political events, which now includes the Labour party, who want to privatise all the services that working-class men and women rely on?
Colin Lewis
Blackwood, Gwent

• 3 words stood out for me: “taxation advantages absolutely everyone”. Go over.
Mike Pender
Cardiff

• Harry Leslie Smith’s eulogy to the NHS measures the amounts of improvement in society following the second globe war and the opportunities that have been missed. The NHS did not develop an equal society, but it gave accessibility to healthcare irrespective of signifies to pay out and created strides in medicine which have been offered to absolutely everyone. It grew to become a model to aspire to. The NHS as a public services has saved or ameliorated many lives during most of Harry’s daily life. The answer to the growing value is raising contributions, not offering it off. If we were a more equal society, there wouldn’t be a difficulty.
Dr Graham Ullathorne
Chesterfield, Derbyshire

• My mother is 89 and misplaced the sight in one eye as a little one simply because her parents could not afford any treatment method. I was born in 1945 and survived pneumonia and rheumatic fever as a young little one because of the NHS. Harry Leslie Smith’s great lament created me weep.
Andrew McCulloch
Collingham, Nottinghamshire

• Very best piece of creating I’ve observed in years. Mr Gove should make it compulsory studying in all colleges.
Rosemary Adams
Hunmanby, North Yorkshire

• How ironic that at a time we are commemorating the outbreak of the initial planet war and the D-day landings of 1944, we are betraying the hopes and aspirations of the generations involved. They desired a better long term for their kids and grandchildren, one which eliminated the worry of sickness, poverty and lack of chance. We, their young children and grandchildren, should be deeply ashamed of our wilful destruction of their legacy.
Carole Rowe
Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

"The NHS stripped down like a derelict house" | @guardianletters