SIR,

Health care should not be the preseve of the wealthy or a lifestyle choice. It is a social responsibility which we all support according to our means and an essential service we should receive according to our need, wherever we live in the UK.

The Government's ambition to create the NHS as the best healthcare system in the world claims to be rooted in the three principles of giving patients more power, focusing on healthcare outcomes and quality standards, and giving frontline professionals much greater freedoms and a strong leadership role.

At the heart of these proposals (in England) are Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), in which doctors will begin 'running' local NHS services from April 2013.

However, this not only threatens the universality of the NHS by opening the door even wider to services based on post code, it also introduces a commercial principle into the NHS that left unchecked will lead inevitably to its privatisation. Where the NHS in England leads, Wales is likely to follow.

This must not be allowed to happen. I urge all CCGs and the doctors that serve on them to protect the NHS for the whole nation.

They can do this by adopting the 38 Degrees amendments to their constitutions. There is a 38 Degree petition, signed by many people including myself, showing how strongly local people want their NHS to be protected. All CCGs should listen.

Philip Greenway

(Penallt)