Patricia Hewitt blandly states, "of course, everybody wants a choice of hospitals".
I have made a point of asking around the people I know if they want that and nobody does.
What they want is for their local hospital to be able to treat them when they need it locally, where they are within reach of friends and family.
Sylvia and I have nothing but trust and praise for those at York Hospital, and our local doctors, who have taken us through some serious conditions and keep us going.
The same applies to education, unless you include those who choose to pay for health care and private education. They only rely on the NHS when the private sector can't provide, as Patricia may do and our youngest daughter does too.
But our other two and their families rely on the local NHS being able to provide what they need when they need it.
They are paying all their dues to facilitate this, as we have always done and still do.
We expect our representatives in Parliament to keep this provision a top priority and concentrate on its good management.
We will never choose to change that unless we are forced into it.
What I would like to know is: why do they want us to think we need this obscure choice? What is their hidden objective and in whose interest is it?
They will never reveal that, so we must make up our own minds about it.
Leighton Croft,
York.
Updated: 10:21 Monday, January 09, 2006
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