YOUR article “Mixed views on health service cuts” (The Press, July 17) made interesting reading.

For anyone attending the meeting of full council at the Guildhall last Thursday evening will have seen for themselves that the only political party offering any real debate on this important issue was coming from the Labour seats.

Every single Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillor voted against debating this emergency motion tabled by the Labour Group.

Just a few moments later, having voted against the motion to debate the NHS reforms which will almost certainly affect the health and lives of every single person across this city, Conservative councillor John Galvin showed us he clearly suffers from a selective amnesia, as he raised from his seat to tell us how full council meetings should only be debating the issues affecting the people of this city.

Perhaps Coun Galvin and his fellow Conservative/Liberal Democrat councillors are wealthy enough to pay for private health care, so the issue would be of no real concern to them, but I only wonder how these councillors look the residents of York in the eye.

Dan Sidley, Phoenix Boulevard, York.

• THE brave new vision from Andrew Lansley envisages both sole practitioners and group practices handling the entire NHS budget and commissioning for their patients from hospitals, local authorities, private companies and primary services. This begs a number of questions; not least do GPs want to take on this responsibility? Or will single GPs be prepared or able to commission such a wide range of services? Will they sub-contract the commissioning process to private companies involved in health care and so bring in privatisation by stealth?

It is not clear where public consultation fits in with this GP-led model. It is argued that because decisions are taken with individual patients, this is inherently consultative, but this is hogwash. It merely constitutes a fragmentation of the process, as there is no forum for leading discussion. It is unclear how strategic decision-making will be conducted, if at all. Just as the schools system is being broken apart so it is with health.

The “big society” means the abolition of the collective.

Public health will be another casualty. Lives are saved by the promotion of health education.

Coun Ruth Potter, Chaucer Street, York.

• THE Tory/Lib Dem coalition has obviously never heard of the saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Last month, the Commonwealth Fund judged the NHS to be the second-best health-care system in the world and top for efficiency, yet despite this the Government wish to undo the improvements made over the past 17 years, and fundamentally reform the way the NHS works.

It makes no sense whatever to scrap primary care trusts (PCTs) and put GP groups in charge of funds. Such a move will create a postcode lottery for health, and the fund managers will be less accountable than the current PCTs.

Like many of the other changes and cuts we are going to see over the duration of this Parliament, these are based on Tory ideology, and not what is best for the public sector and its users. The only people who will benefit from these changes will be private health providers, as waiting lists grow and those who can afford to switch to private health care.

It is imperative that we join the battle to save the NHS before it is too late and join the campaign against the proposed reforms. Andrew Collingwood, Langwith Lane, Heslington, York.

• THE Con-Dem coalition is planning to move hospitals outside the NHS and give commissioning power to GPs with little accountability.

This will cost taxpayers £1.7 billion this year and be to the detriment of York residents. Neither party had any mention of this in their manifestos.

The Conservative manifesto said the Conservatives have “campaigned to defend the NHS from Labour’s cuts and reorganisations”.

So what is their first act on the NHS? Cuts and a reorganisation. Labour councillors see the plans as privatisation of the NHS and we oppose this. A Press report said “a gulf is emerging among members of City of York Council on the issue” (July 17).

Labour proposed an emergency motion to the last full council meeting to condemn these plans. Lib Dem and Conservative councillors refused to debate the motion.

During the election, York Lib Dems said in campaign literature that the Conservatives “can’t be trusted with our NHS”. They said, “Who will protect our NHS?” It is clear that now they are in coalition with the Conservatives it isn’t the Lib Dems.

Coun James Alexander, Holgate Road, Holgate, York.

• THERE is some suspicion that Cameron’s “Big Society” idea is simply a way of cutting costs. Of course it is! Remember “care in the community”? Result: an unknown number of people with “mental health issues” posing dangers to themselves and others, living on the streets of the UK, or in prison.

Research suggests a great many of them are ex-services with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Children with special needs”? Do not all children, to varying degrees, have ‘special needs’? Some have the need for a good and an undisturbed education. It is simply that some ‘needs’ are more special than others. That is why there were places called special schools.

Under-qualified, insufficient and underfunded social workers? Result: children die at the hands of their carers. Senior citizens lie ill or dead untended at home, sometimes for weeks. Or they end up accused of ‘bed blocking’ in hospitals.

Big idea? Another big con.

Malcolm Glover, Lindsey Ave, Acomb, York.